That Maurizio Sarri be sacked if Juventus failed to overtake Lyon to succeed in the Champions League quarter-finals was to be expected, but when he was sacked on Saturday, he did not replace the feeling of deep tiredness with what he has in football. After all, he had won the championship this season, but that’s no longer enough for Juventus. This is the sad fact for the fashion elite: championship titles are so familiar that they mean almost nothing in themselves.
Much less expected was that Andrea Pirlo would be announced as his replacement within hours of Sarri’s dismissal, and Juventus does not contemplate any opportunity that might be available. It is, frankly, an ordinary resolution, a resolution that looks like a romantic kick to a club legend made more through hope than any thoughtful plan.
“Today he starts a new bankruptcy in his football world career,” said one from the club. “As was said about a week ago: from Master to Sir. From today, he will coach the people of Juventus, having made the club the decision to entrust him with the technical direction of the first team, having already decided him for Juventus U23. Today’s selection is based on the confidence that Pirlo has what it takes to lead a skilled and talented team from its inception at the bank to pursue new successes.
There is a sense of moment that each and every club needs their own Pep Guardiola. They need their own former player, someone steeped in the traditions of the club, who can do what Guardiola did in 2008 in Barcelona, replacing the club in a leading senior coaching role and taking it to new heights. This is one of the main reasons Why Manchester United named Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Chelsea appointed Frank Lampard.
But Guardiola was named after an extraordinary year at the helm of the reserves. It was a gamble, but founded on serious tests. Solskjaer was named after winning championships in Norway. Even Lampard had a moderate point of good fortune in his season at the helm of Derby County in the current Tier of England (before he also replaced Sarri). Pirlo had nine days at the helm of the under-23s. These first educational sessions must have been sensational.
All of this raises your own questions. When Pirlo was appointed under-23 coach, was he already contemplating senior position? Did juve coaches already think they could combine it on paper if Juve were embarrassed by Lyon? Or is it a resolution taken on a whim last week through administrators whose movements have been erratic over the past two seasons?
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Only a year ago, of course, that Max Allegri dismissed after winning five league names in a row, presumably because his football thought it was less likely than Sarri’s to win the name of the Champions League to which Juve aspires more than anything. And that would have been the case. But the resolution would have been more convincing if Sarri had not been expected to produce his Napoli team’s fluid football with Cristiano Ronaldo’s static individualism at the helm. Ronaldo is still a phenomenon, but to come with him on the team is to settle for everything having to go through him, and that’s not how Sarri.
Pirlo was a brain player. The assumption is that understanding the angles of play you have demonstrated in the area will result in tactical acuity from the bank, even if you don’t follow. His calm and serene air, in the same way, suggests that he will have no challenge with the more political facets of the job. But all this is unproven.
And whoever’s in the rate has to deal with Ronaldo’s problem. It was the board’s first bet to check to bring a Champions League first name to Turin since 1996, won with a massive load despite its 33 years at the time, assuming that its goals and ability to carry out at key moments was what the Juve lacked. He didn’t disappoint, but his presence limited the way his team can play. To use Ronaldo well at the end of the period, a club will have to do what Zinedine Zidane did in Madrid and build a team that serves him, taking few dangers and staying in the middle of the field.
At the same time, however, the board seems to aspire to something more modern and progressive. Ronaldo is 35 years old. It no longer becomes mobile. He doesn’t have any position on a wonderful team. No one has any idea what kind of football Pirlo can favour (literally, there is no evidence to base on), but the two needs of the Juventus board would possibly be irreconcilable.