Luciano Spalletti addressed the media in Perth on Thursday evening ahead of Friday’s pre-season friendly against Inter — and his words, as usual, were delivered with a combination of tactical intelligence, philosophical depth, and strategic honesty that distinguishes him from almost any other manager in European football.
“We Have a Couple of Objectives — but We Are Waiting Because the Squad Is Already Very Large”
On the transfer market, Spalletti struck the tone of a man who knows exactly what he wants but is in no mood to be pressured into acting before the conditions are right. “We have a couple of objectives remaining,” he confirmed. “But we are waiting — because the squad we already have is very large. We cannot simply keep adding players without finding the right solutions for those who need to move on first. The balance has to be right.”
It is the clearest public articulation yet of the sequencing problem that has defined the second half of Juventus’s window: every incoming signing is contingent on a departure, and with a squad still carrying the legacy of previous administrations, those departures have been slower to materialise than anyone at the Continassa would have wished.
“We Are Missing a 20-Goal Striker”
The most striking admission of the press conference came when Spalletti was asked directly what the squad still lacks. His answer was unusually specific. “We are missing a pure centre-forward — the type who scores 20 goals per season. That profile is not easy to find, and it is not easy to afford, given the situation we are managing. But it is what we need if we are to compete at the highest level.”
The reference is revealing. Randal Kolo Muani — confirmed this week as Juventus’s principal striker — is not principally a penalty-box goal-scorer in the traditional mould. He is dynamic, mobile, and technically sophisticated, but his goal return at the very top level has been inconsistent. The manager is effectively signalling that a second, more classic striker — the type of profile associated in this summer’s context with Alexander Sorloth, Jean-Philippe Mateta, or even Vlahović — remains on the agenda.
On Bastoni: “I See It a Certain Way — and I Think He Would Be Extraordinary Here”
The moment that will generate the most discussion arrived when Spalletti was asked about Alessandro Bastoni of Inter — a player whose name has circled around Juventus in the context of possible approaches, and who, sitting directly across the city divide, represents one of Italian football’s most symbolically charged hypothetical transfers.
Spalletti’s response was characteristically measured but unmistakably positive. “On Bastoni, I see it in a certain way — he is a player who would be extraordinary in a club like ours.” He was careful not to cross any institutional lines, and the word “extraordinary” was preceded by a caveat that kept the observation within the realm of tactical appreciation rather than transfer intent. But in the theatre of Italian football press conferences, the remark will not pass unnoticed — particularly with Inter’s squad sitting in the same hotel complex in Perth.
A Manager in Full Command of His Narrative
Taken together, the Perth press conference paints the portrait of a Spalletti who is simultaneously honest about what the squad lacks, measured about the timeline for addressing it, and entirely unbothered by the optics of making his views known publicly. The window is open. The targets exist. The squad is large. And in two weeks, the season begins — with or without a 20-goal striker between the posts of Spalletti’s ambitions.
