Our latest abject performance in losing 1-0 to Lazio has soured the holiday spirit for many. When speaking with my brotherly friend from Naples earlier this evening, to exchange our traditional best wishes for Buona Pasqua, he told me he had enough grief with the Partenopei to seek to gloat at the ongoing plight at Juve. He was also unsurprised to hear me explain that the result from yesterday was of no real importance, it was the manner in which we played that nourished my long term despondency.
Abject, lacking cohesion, appearing like a group of players never trained together before, absent of any real fire in the belly and belief in whatever system was aimed for.
I didn’t want Lazio to win because I never wish to see us lose games, it was more the boyish instinct to see the best side on the field earn their merited victory. And Lazio were the better side. By a country mile.
I was pleased for Tudor to register the result and to have inspired a fighting effort from his new charges after so little time to get to know each other. Also regretful that our club didn’t approach him earlier this season to sound out any interest he might have in picking up the reigns on a temporary basis if our slide towards potential ruin continued in the slow, steady downward spiral. Perhaps they did, and he decided to wait and then felt Lazio was a better opportunity. Probably not the case however, which is not to suggest that they haven’t spoken to other options to replace Max. For I believe they have.
Whilst I remain close to astonished at how our season has unravelled, and still in a state near disbelief regarding the notion that we may not qualify for the champions league; this possibility is now looming large on the near horizon. It seems surreal. Given we were looking a strong second, with some even dreaming of a serious scudetto challenge towards the end of January. What has happened since, a single fortunate victory in the 9 games played, looking second best in close to all fixtures….is remarkable for all the wrong reasons.
My own inkling is that we will manage to remain in the top 5 – I believe Serie A is close to assured to get that extra CL spot. Regardless, it has become too awful a run of wretched form, anaemic and disjointed performances for Max to remain in the role beyond the end of this season. For whatever reasons, the players are not responding to his coaching. He has to go, even if we manage to bring home the coppa italia and level out for a more respectable finish to the season in the league. It is too late for any logical reasoning to conclude it is for the best of the club for him to finish out his contract.
Put him on gardening leave, the cost of which with his staff likely EU15m+ yet this seems a smaller cost to absorb than the damage done by another campaign of regression and our brand suffering further.
Max is not the man to lead us.
I suspect that many fans are not aware of how badly the club was run since 2018, with Agnelli overseeing a period after kicking Beppe out, promoting Paratici and hedging all bets on Ronaldo which precipitated our journey to becoming a shambles of the well oiled machine we had been before.
Our finances were left in a perilous state. The squad was bloated with overpaid players signed with seemingly no focus on chemistry or hunger. Managers have come and gone. The marketing department made staggering blunders, including the manner in which the Super League was launched. The climate within the club management at the upper echelons, as per the recordings released, smacked of a group operating under the assumption there would be no oversight, just keep the big man happy I guess…
Add to this, even after Agnelli was pulled away from his throne, the issues abounding with Pogba’s injury record then bizarre imbecile routine with the drugs as well as Fagioli’s betting scandal. Which I see as the tail-end legacy still bearing rotten fruit.
None of this is new. Yet to lay it out, in one fell and foul swoop, should help to remind myself, and others, that there was never going to be a quick fix.
It will take several years – at best – to recover to a position where we all expect our club to exist by default. This will need the right BoD in place including a high level Sporting Director given autonomy to manage the sporting side of the business with a clear, reasonable plan in place. We do not yet know if we have these vital elements required for an optimistic 2-3 years recovery project.
Calvo, Scanavino, Ferrero and Giuntoli, all appear intelligent recruitment moves. The first three are demonstrably capable in their areas of expertise, and the latter is arguably the most impressive SD in the league after our former masterful director, Beppe Marotta.
If they are to be a success, this cannot happen simply by employing them and expecting a quick fix of the deep rooted failings at the club stretching back 5 years.
The analogy I mentioned recently, of pondering Juve as a cruise liner. Moving at top speed in the wrong direction for many years. Replacing the captain and first mate, deck-hands and stewards will not suddenly lead to instant recovery. The ship must first be slowed. Time then taken to make damn sure the new direction is correct. Then to hope the new team works together well, and set forth, slowly gaining speed again, towards an improved trajectory.
We are closer to this>
Than this>
Some fans rant and squeal to get rid of 10-20 players from the squad. Yet this is simply not possible. Firstly, if they are under contract we cannot just end their contracts. Secondly, if they have been performing poorly, who will want them? Will also add in that they are assets on the books and our accounting – given our recent legal horrors – more than ever needs to be extremely professional.
Giuntoli cannot simply wipe out half the squad, get the money for them to not just balance the books, but bring in much needed funds to replace them with superior players.
There is also the consideration that if Max is simply failing quite terribly as a coach, we could assume that many of the players currently under performing could look much improved under a different manager. This presents many unknowns. For Giuntoli needs to judge this, alongside the still very apparent, even confirmed need to shave more off the wage bill.
We can possibly make wholesale changes to the squad, by which I mean 5/6 OUT and similar coming in, yet for us to have any hope of success, this needs to be done with the input from the new manager.
How can our SD build a team without knowing for sure what our manager next season needs? He cannot.
“This is a short of Year Zero for Juventus, after the earthquakes that struck the club,” said Calvo, referring to their points penalty in Serie A last season and exclusion from UEFA competition for the 2023-24 campaign over financial irregularities.
“The primary objective is to stabilise the revenue stream, considering that this season the absence from the Champions League costs us circa €100m, as well as the €15m from last season.
“The results we are achieving in terms of getting value out of young talents and the appreciation of the Juve brand on social media allow us to be more than optimistic.
“If the sporting performances are positive too, then that process will be accelerated.” (Calvo, Managing Director Revenue & Football Development Juventus, Feb 2024)
The model I suspect the club are adopting is >>
- Cut the wage bill still further
- Avoid further scandal/negative press
- Maintain enough competitiveness to achieve regular CL qualification
Whilst Calvo, Scanavino, Ferrero are not experienced football people, I presume they are astute enough to understand we are a club in shambles, and they have been tasked to clear the decks and return us back towards a position of strength. My one fear with the upper management is not the absence of any proven football first focused directors beyond CG, it is that either Agnelli remains somehow pulling strings, and/or some of his loyal servants remain in key roles. If either of these concerns are true, the recovery will be slower.
I would have preferred a clean sweep of all involved with the carnage of the last few years, but this gets back to the same issue with the squad. Employees cannot simply be sacked when they have contracts. Also, the new regime likely need guidance, so will be relying on those long involved with the day to day running of the club. At least initially.
Yes, Agnelli presided over a glorious period. No doubt. He then presided over a wretched period, I felt he had gone full retard drunk on his power, operating the club like his personal fiefdom. I won’t delve into the Agnelli/Elkann familial warfare quite severe locking of horns, would take an novella. Suffice to say, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest, if after many future moons, someone suggested John Elkann played a pivotal role in ending his cousin’s ultimately ill-fated role in running Juve…
Now for the positives…
We are backed by a family and huge money which will never see us fall too low.
Whilst we will likely need to monetise some of them, we have a group of young talents who are meeting senior, high level football potently. Not just Soule (who to forsake, as arguably the most impressive attacking talent in the league, would be painful), but also his long term friend Enzo Barrenechea…who I always found with a hint of devilry in his eyes, and since watching/living through the Vikings series, he is a doppelganger for Ivor the Boneless!!!
We also have Hujisen…and De Winter…and Gonzalez. Lesser known Barbieri.
If we didn’t have this still burning need to sell, we could ponder a future squad built on already owned, currently blossoming talents.
Essentially, we have some quality players. Even when all seems and is awful, we remain in line for a return to the CL. Also have the FIFA WORLD club cup next season. Will lose some high wages this Summer regardless of our struggles to move them on. I just hope we include Rabiot…as perhaps I have this out of context, but to find this image, after the loss to Lazio>>>
I am hopeful this is some media fake…for not only do Rabiot’s legs seem lady-like, but their smiles and chuckles…Can you imagine Conte seeing this after such a disastrous performance and deserved defeat? Or Tudor? Or any manager who understands how appalling we were?
To be comfortable to laugh, share a joke after that game…I am not sure if anyone at the club has the authority and fierceness to tell them both ‘you are DONE. This is disgusting and too far beyond any line we can set as respect for the club, for the fans. You both have contracts until the Summer, can train with the NExTgen, try offer something of value before you pack your bags and fuck off’.
Distracted…yet I have long concluded Sandro retired a few years back and is playing not far beyond flipflops on the Rio beaches, and as for Rabiot…Basta.
We have many problems as a club. This latest mega slump can come as no surprise. We have to grasp at faith in the new management, for as outlined above, the deep rooted issues need years to fix…
I wont make any puerile remarks of ‘IM NEVER WATCHING JUVE AGAIN UNTIL WE ARE AMAZING AGAIN!’ Best to leave such silliness to the kids.
The rebuild is underway. Not until this Summer, the close season, can we begin to judge Giuntoli. Until which time, I do not believe the management will replace Max, and we will stutter through 3rd-5th. Let us then look to the Summer, as the first checkpoint for how the new management are progressing.
It is awful for now, comrades, fellow juventini. I have faith we will improve, just try to understand and accept, years of mismanagement will take years to rectify.
Buona Pasqua
TGP
(Follow me here in X twitter whatever Elon calls it now>>> https://twitter.com/thegutterpoet
