Rome (AFP)
"Welcome home, Max!"
With Massimiliano Allegri, Juventus brings back to his bedside a pragmatic coach, with a well-stocked record, to settle the bet of the beautiful game attempted with Maurizio Sarri then Andrea Pirlo, who will each last only one season.
Two titles and a qualification in extremis for the Champions League are not enough when you train Juventus, which remained on nine consecutive titles of champion of Italy: Pirlo, launched last year with good intentions but no coaching experience , was asked on Friday to go for his scales elsewhere.
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Juve is clearly returning to its fundamentals by bringing back Allegri: an experienced and pragmatic technician with whom the "Old Lady", during her five years in office (2014-2019), crushed Italian football with five league titles but also four Italian Cups and two Super Cups.
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"The beauty of the story is that it never stops. And in football, it means a concept engraved in our DNA: the most beautiful victory is always next," writes Juve in its press release formalizing the return of the Allegri "winning machine".
Only the Champions League refused him with two finals lost (2015 and 2017).
But since his departure in 2019, after a failure in the quarterfinals against Ajax Amsterdam, the Bianconeri have done worse in C1 with two eliminations in the round of 16 (against Lyon for Sarri, against Porto for Pirlo).
- Through the front door -
Between this Juve of Andrea Agnelli dreaming of international destiny and a 53-year-old coach lacking land, without a club since leaving Turin, the reunion seems logical.
With a common goal: to shine again in the Champions League, although this may also depend on possible retaliation from UEFA in the Super League file.
For Allegri, it's a comeback by the front door, with expanded powers in terms of recruitment and a royal contract: 4 years for 9 million euros per season, according to the Italian press.
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For Agnelli, it is an admission of failure in the strategy adopted in 2019 when he then chose to turn the page - without any hitches - by dismissing this coach, certainly victorious but regularly criticized for his too cautious and pragmatic game.
"As a business leader, you have to know how to make decisions at the right time. The future will tell if it was the right choice", said the boss of the Bianconeri who could only see the passages of Sarri and Pirlo broke their promises.
- Pirlo would do the same again -
To regain the top in Italy and in Europe, Juve puts forward the "moral force" of Allegri but also on the "brilliant ideas of a technician able to outsmart the cards".
Even if, at the level of philosophy, one should probably not expect to see the trainer giving up his faith in the result, before the esthetics: "You must achieve the objectives which one sets for you. Juve is winning. If someone is happy to leave the field and say + we played well but we lost +, that is not for me, "he explained in 2019.
A few hours before the official arrival of Allegri, Juventus had settled the short Pirlo experiment: "Thank you, Andrea. These are the first words that we must say at the end of this particular experience lived together".
Which, in a message on Instagram, did not hide his surprise, recalling having "achieved the objectives that had been set for me" with two titles (Cup and Italian Supercup) and qualification in C1.
"When I was called up by Juve, I never thought about the risk I was taking, although it was quite obvious (...). If I had to go back, I would make exactly the same choice" , he added, saying he was ready to follow up with a new adventure: "It is time to get back into the game and face new challenges".
© 2021 AFP