Massimo Mauro spent enough years at Juventus to know what the dressing room should look and feel like from the inside. Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport and on Sportmediaset’s Pressing programme, the former bianconero midfielder did not spare either the players or the broader institutional situation in his assessment of the club’s most difficult week of the season so far.
“The Numbers Are Merciless Compared to Previous Managers — This Lot Looked Like Scapoli e Ammogliati”
The opening observation was characteristically direct and characteristically pointed. “The numbers are merciless when you compare them with the past and with the managers who came before. And this Juventus looked like scapoli e ammogliati” — the Italian expression for a chaotic, disorganised kickaround between married men and bachelors, with no shared identity or collective understanding. “The players, apart from Vicario, are all foreigners. They must know, understand, and have seen something of this society. Against Sassuolo the team understood nothing — and in the end it is inexplicable how they played.”
“The Problems Are Serious — If Important Players Make Those Errors, You Lose”
On the specific cause of the 3-2 defeat, Mauro refused to soften the verdict with qualifications about injuries or misfortune. “The problems of Juventus are serious. Repeated: if the more important players make those errors, you lose the match — and that is a serious problem.” The reference was to Bremer’s defensive positioning, Kalulu’s passive marking, and Lucumí’s in-game removal at half-time — three of the squad’s senior, experienced players simultaneously below the required level in the same match.
“Conte Would Run Back to Juventus — He Is Juventino, He Has Won Everything Here”
The passage that Gazzetta editors placed most prominently concerned the name that has been circling the Continassa since Saturday evening. “Conte? He would accept the challenge of returning to Juventus, no question. Antonio has been at Inter, he has been at Napoli — but he is juventino. He was the captain of Juventus. He won everything here. If Juventus needed him, he would run. This is my opinion — perhaps it is not the case. But that is how I see it.”
The framing is important. Mauro is not calling for Spalletti to be dismissed. He is mapping a reality: Conte exists, he is in the city, he maintains powerful emotional ties to the institution — and a Juventus in genuine crisis would find him an option that carries a different weight from any other available manager.
A Gazzetta Editorial That Is Being Read as a Signal
The most telling contextual detail from the search results is the observation from multiple Italian football outlets that La Gazzetta dello Sport’s editorial on this subject has been received across the Italian football media as a signal in itself — rare for the paper that is generally considered closest to the club’s institutional positions. When Gazzetta’s editorial position implies a coaching change might be warranted, the institutional conversation has moved to a qualitatively different level. Whether that editorial pressure translates into institutional action depends on the results of the next two matches — against NEC Nijmegen on Thursday and Atalanta on Sunday. They may well be the most consequential six days of Luciano Spalletti’s tenure.
