Real Madrid centre-back Pepe joined the coach for today’s press conference on the eve of the team’s friendly against Inter Milan, their first game on Chinese soil this summer. The player spoke about his contract negotiations and the possibility of losing his partner in central defence, Sergio Ramos.
Contract talks: “I’m very happy at Madrid. I’ve made my intentions clear to the president and my agent is working on it so that I can remain here for a few more years. I hope the season to come will be a good one”.
Ramos: “I’m fine and I don’t think any of us are thinking about what might happen if Sergio leaves us. He’s our captain. I’m sure that he’s going to stay with us because he loves the club so much and his team mates. There’s nothing unusual when we speak, everything is normal. I hope he stays, he’s a reference for us”.
Inter Milan: “We really like being in China; everyone is so friendly. We’re expecting a difficult game, we’ll have to put everything that the boss has been teaching us in training into practice. I hope it’s a great game and that we win. It’ll be difficult because Inter are a very good side – one of the top sides in Europe”.
Atmosphere surrounding the team: “We’re all happy and working well. We do what the coach asks of us. We want to make sure we are in the best possible shape when the league starts. We’re building up our rhythm as quickly as we can so that the team fuctions”.
Benítez working hard to iron out defects at the back: “Every coach has his own mentality and ways of making the team play. We’ve been working very hard to take on aboard the coach’s ideas and make them work out on the pitch”.
What areas has Benítez changed in defence? “He wants the whole team to work a lot more and that’s what we are trying to do. For the short time we have been working together, things seem to be going well and we have to continue along those lines”.