Juventus Set for a Weird and Unusual Time After Overhaul | OneFootball

We’ll never know for sure whether Juventus would have nabbed Antonio Conte, or at least Gian Piero Gasperini, if their ownership didn’t sack Cristiano Giuntoli and bring in a new apical exec while the coaching carousel was in full swing. Timing is of the essence where there’s competition. The uncertainty surely didn’t help. Instead, Napoli were ready to do whatever it took to keep their coach, and Roma had been courting the latter for months.

A Fairly Unexpected Twist

The choice was hurtful not for its substance, as there’s ground to justify it, but for when and how it came to be. Moreover, it’s yet another shake-up in rapid succession. Since Fabio Paratici’s fall from grace, the Bianconeri have had a new sporting director basically every summer, with the ‘plusvalenze’ trial contributing to the mess.

So much turnover at the top, which inevitably trickles down, sets the Old Lady back each time. It prevents it from opening a cycle that could perhaps lead to better results. Any project needs time to develop, and continuity is the most underrated asset. It has also cost them up-and-coming officials who got caught in the crosshairs or escaped after getting the lay of the land and are thriving in quieter environments.

An Untimely Choice

The choice by the Juventus governor was in some way reassuring. It meant that achieving the bare minimum with great struggle, qualifying for the Champions League, doesn’t cut it, and that everybody can be held accountable for their mistakes. On the other end, it should have been set up way in advance, giving the new brass time to settle in and prepare for the coaching search and the transfer market. It appears that they won’t do anything of note in the new early June window. It should have been exploited better, as other European giants are doing. The Club World Cup will likely turn out to be a series of glorified summer friendlies, but it’ll be an opportunity to evaluate talents and players in general.

By the looks of it, considering that they are scrambling to find a sporting director, they might have asked Giuntoli to stay with less power, and he said no. It is obviously within his rights. He went from the top-paid exec in Serie A to unemployed in a jiff, although it probably won’t last long, and he got a large severance package.

The Giuntoli Era

The judgment about the former director’s spell is complex. Considering the lack of whispers beforehand, he probably thought he was safe as he fulfilled the mandate of cutting costs without a fire sale and significantly lowered the payroll while safeguarding the squad’s competitiveness. Juventus will be in the black for the first time in ages. While he threaded the needle there, sheer math wasn’t enough. The analysis from the higher-ups cut deeper. Most of his big swings didn’t pan out. The fact that almost all of them were defensible at the time evidently didn’t suffice.

Any team would have been glad to hire Thiago Motta last year. It’s still not quite clear what went wrong and why the roster, even if young and not full of divas, never fully bought in. He probably would have grown over time and benefited from some patience, but, to his credit, the exec was right in sensing where they were headed and acted before a disastrous finale, backtracking without being stubborn. It’s hard to imagine they would have made the top four without the fighting spirit they displayed under Igor Tudor, the lack of which was the most tangible issue under the previous gaffer.

In addition to that call, the grand strategy they used last summer had suspect results, to say the least. They footed their lavish signings by cashing in on several starlets. The money had to come from somewhere to balance the books. In hindsight, considering how Teun Koopmeiners, Douglas Luiz, and Nico Gonzalez performed, they would have been better off keeping their powder dry and seeing how Dean Huijsen, Matias Soulé, and less gifted prospects would have fared. It’s not a given that they would have succeeded. For instance, Nicolò Fagioli detailed the burden of being a kid from the youth system, implying that it is easier to come through in other teams. At least they wouldn’t have had regrets. Plus, they surely leaned way too much on loans.

A Significant Shift for Juventus

The new Juventus course will have to take advantage of the pause caused by the Club World Cup to get their ducks in order and devise a coherent strategy from July on. Considering where Damien Comolli comes from, they’ll be cautious both ways, making a few select signings to plug glaring holes and raise the squad’s ceiling. They won’t brute force their way to the top and outspend all the other sides like they have done for decades, barring some short stretches due to force majeure. Hopefully, somebody like Giorgio Chiellini, albeit very green, will balance out an approach too lenient on algorithms and whatnot, as football isn’t just made of numbers.

When their owner meddles, it’s not to loosen the purse, but rather the other way around, as Corriere dello Sport informs. It’s pretty obvious considering how granular his examination of the work of the previous front office was. He ousted it for technical decisions and not for big-picture stuff. There’s also a chance he was informed of what Giuntoli was cooking up, meaning more lofty acquisitions like Victor Osimhen, and said no thanks.

Still, the new hierarchy mustn’t be too gun-shy. The Bianconeri require upgrades just to confirm their position. Instead, they’ll need multiple strokes of luck to be a threat in the Scudetto race. The only sound alternative to splurging is long-term planning. If Giuntoli had a vision, it was nullified two campaigns into his five-year contract. Having a coach who’s at best the third choice isn’t an encouraging premise. They’ll need to show him some trust in tangible ways, or he’ll look like just a placeholder until someone better comes along and they reset everything once again.