justified himself by stating that "[s]ometimes you need to tell lies to stimulate the players, to piss them off", he admitted having said the statement. Zeru tituli conference During a press conference on 3 March 2009, Mourinho said that Milan and Roma would end the season with no honours and alleged that Juventus had collected a lot of points thanks to referees' mistakes; he also accused Italian sport journalists of "intellectual prostitution" on their behalf, as they were focusing on a possible mistake regarding a penalty conceded to Inter against Roma instead of talking about the failures of Inter's rivals. His rant promptly became popular in Italy, especially regarding the "zero titles" quote used by Mourinho, and incorrectly pronounced by him as zeru tituli (in correct Italian it would have been zero titoli), which was later extensively referred to by football journalists in Italy. It also became the title's catchphrase used by fans to celebrate Inter's 17th Scudetto later that season. The catchphrase was even used by Nike to present the celebration shirts for Inter's Serie A title. After the Coppa Italia final in May, fans of Roma's cross-town rivals Lazio, the new Coppa Italia winners, quoted Mourinho's "zeru tituli" statement by waering shirts with Io campione, tu zero titoli ("I'm a champion, you have no honours") on it. During the same press conference, Mourinho also directly attacked Roma manager Luciano Spalletti and Juventus manager Claudio Ranieri: the former as he was used to continuously releasing interviews, in contrast with Mourinho, who disliked that in spite of the fact that he was considered good at it; the latter as he rejected Mourinho's claims that his team had taken advantage of referees' mistakes. Mourinho said that the single time Inter benefitted was an offside goal against Siena. Italy national team representatives Mourinho once again sparked controversy in the summer with his argument with Italy national team coach Marcello Lippi. Lippi predicted that Juventus would win the scudetto in the 2009–10 season, which Mourinho viewed as a disrespectful statement to Inter coming from a national team manager. Lippi responded by saying that it was just a prediction. After the row with Lippi, he clashed with Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro over Davide Santon's place in the Inter squad. Cannavaro had said that Santon might have to leave Inter to get regular playing time to gain selection for Italy in the upcoming World Cup.