Giuntoli: "Juve? I signed Kessie while pretending to be a surfer"

Atalanta technical area director Cristiano Giuntoli spoke today at the Festival dello Sport in Trento. Here are his comments from the stage and on the sidelines.

GAETANO - "I have known him for many years, over the last year he has played as a midfielder, and from what I know of him I thought he could have the right characteristics for Sarri's football. For me he can aim for the national team. Sarri loves them when he has them. He always defends them, even in private. He is always very concerned with defending them and always takes on a lot of responsibility. He does not take it on in the transfer market, he tells you what he thinks, but he was certainly happy to have him," reports Tmw.

ELMAS - "A surprise? It did not depend on us, the lad, his entourage and his parent club did well to keep quiet. It does not happen any more in today's football, it lasted 4-5 days. Usually the name always comes out."

KRISTENSEN - "He has great physicality, he is quick despite his size, and he has good technique. We want to play with a back four, we have not had great results but we are among the top four for playing out from the back and he helps us with that. It was an expensive deal, I thank the club, but with a manageable salary."

INFORTUNATI - "We had Hien's injury and after the second break he should be back. Then we are waiting for Kossounou. Sulemana is almost back, one week to go. For Hien we need to wait for the next break, same for Kossounou. Raspadori has very little, a minor issue, I think he will miss one match at most."

KESSIE - "By playing the surfer during the transfer market I had understood there could be a few timing problems (with Juventus, editor's note). He was immediately open to it. He and Luca Percassi have an incredible relationship of trust and esteem. It opened up in a short time and we were good and lucky to get it done quickly."

ROWE - "There is always a bit of tension. When you play 4-3-3 he could represent the perfect profile, we moved for him a little earlier. Bologna put up a bit of resistance, he had a great desire to come."

CABAL - "An interesting player, like others we dealt with, but we know what to do and how much to push for a player, or not, based on the situation. If he comes under certain conditions we can think about it, otherwise not. We were very firm on moving forward with one and stopping on the other, we were not at the mercy of others."