AS Roma coach Rudi Garcia has addressed the media for the first time in Melbourne in a packed press conference at the MCG.
The former Lyon and Lille manager said his team was delighted to be in Melbourne and confirmed they would be taking the International Champions Cup very seriously with the Serie A season not far away.
“The group is fine, the team is fine. We’re very well on and off the pitch. The group is made up of a good crop of players who know each other from previous years,” he said.
Roma arrived on Wednesday morning and trained for the first time on the MCG on Friday night, just hours after Real Madrid took to the pitch in front of more than 10,000 fans.
All the club’s stars, including legend Francesco Totti, Daniele De Rossi, Miralem Pjanjic, Ashley Cole and Australia’s own Daniel De Silva trained during a light session.
.@OfficialASRoma on the MCG for their first training session! pic.twitter.com/mn3JGt04eE
— Outside90 (@Outside90) July 17, 2015
Garcia mentioned that adjusting to the colder temperatures of Melbourne, in comparison to the European summer, would be the most difficult challenge facing his players, but was optimistic about his team’s progression.
However, he did not rule out the prospect of entering the transfer market to further compliment his squad, with the club being heavily linked to Manchester City’s Eden Dzeko over the past 24 hours.
“Yes of course [we want to buy players]. We are in touch with director Walter Sabatini back in Rome and we are working very hard to find players in different positions,” he said.
“We want to be sure about the quality of the player.”
Garcia was also forthcoming about the potential of young Australian attacker Daniel De Silva who could make his Roma debut against Real Madrid on Saturday night.
“We took the chance of having Daniel [De Silva] with us. He is a very interesting prospect, one for the future,” he said.
“He is young and has to mature, but it is very important to train with experienced players.”
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