Rome (AFP)
Juventus, still Juventus. The coaches pass but the domination of the Turin club remains overwhelming and the Bianconeri were crowned Italian champions Sunday for the ninth time in a row, the first under Maurizio Sarri.
Three titles with Antonio Conte, five with Massimiliano Allegri and therefore one with Sarri. The sequence is impressive and by beating Sampdoria 2-0 on Sunday, the Turin superpower added a 36th scudetto to its astounding collection.
Juve wins, and with two days in advance: for a bit, we would think that this 2019-2020 season was like all the others, without history.
This is obviously not the case because it was interrupted for more than three months by the coronavirus, because it marked the start of a cycle with the arrival of Sarri, a priori the least Juventus-compatible of recent coaches club, and because without being ultra-fierce, the competition has been tougher than often.
Before collapsing, Lazio Rome was only one point away from Juve when the championship resumed at the end of June and they believed in it very strongly, as two years ago the Naples of ... Sarri .
Antonio Conte's Inter Milan is still a project under construction and, even if it amazed, Atalanta Bergamo is not built to play the title.
All these, Inter in the lead, will however have some regrets. Because this rarely brilliant and unusually fragile Juventus in defense ends the season at a rate of almost relegation (five points in five matches before the success of Sunday). She might have been taken.
"I give the team a high mark because it has been the toughest league in the history of Italian football, with enormous difficulties for everyone," Sarri pleaded on Saturday.
- Ronaldo more than Sarrismo -
The Tuscan technician has been the center of all the curiosities this season. How was the idol of Naples with habits - cigarettes, tracksuits and flowery language - far removed from Turin standards, going to succeed in combining success and good play?
He did not really succeed and we have rarely seen the trace of the famous "Sarrismo", the collective and offensive game that had characterized his three Neapolitan seasons.
In the end, observers agree that Juventus have transformed Sarri more than the other way around and that this title bears less the mark of the coach than that of habit and Cristiano Ronaldo.
At 35, the Portuguese has not been scared of the matches every three days after Covid and the heat has not affected his performance.
Two days from the end, the five-time Ballon d'Or is already 31 goals in Serie A and it weighed very heavily in the success of this season, even if it no longer has the brilliance of its best years.
For the beautiful, now there is Dybala, the other great offensive craftsman of the title with 11 goals, each more magnificent than the other, and six assists.
One of Sarri's great merits has also been to succeed in bringing together his two great attacking talents, where Allegri had not found the key.
- No doubt ? -
At 61, Sarri has also added to the Europa League won last season with Chelsea a first title in the Italian top flight. This scudetto comes after a collection of promotions from one lower division to one a little less lower when he coached small Tuscan clubs after his years as a banker.
But that has not yet been enough to dispel some doubts and prejudices surrounding him, as he himself recalled on Wednesday.
"I don't know why I'm still being criticized. No doubt I piss off some of them. But that doesn't interest me so much, like the opinions of journalists, because I think I know more than them in my field", he said.
For the rest, Arthur (Barcelona) and Kulusevski (Parma) have already signed and Sarri will look for players more suited to his ideas, such as Jorginho, who was his mainstay in Naples and Chelsea.
Because Sarri will be there next season, "without a doubt", as club sporting director Fabio Paratici assured Wednesday. It is not forbidden to think that the certainties will still await the Champions League match against Lyon, but continuity is indeed likely.
And next season, Juve will still be favorites. She will try to get a 10th title in a row, for a decade in black and white.
© 2020 AFP