On the morning of Juventus’s Europa League opener against NEC Nijmegen, Guido Vaciago — editor of Tuttosport — has published the most authoritative and fact-based account yet of the Conte-Spalletti-Juventus situation, cutting through the noise of social media speculation with five verifiable certainties.
The Five Things Tuttosport Knows
First: Juventus have not contacted Antonio Conte — neither directly nor indirectly. The last time the two parties spoke was June 2025, and it did not end particularly well. Conte had listened to the proposal to replace Igor Tudor, asked for two days to think about it, and within 48 hours had renewed with De Laurentiis instead. Since then there has been no contact. Carnevali, Massara, Ottolini — and above all Chiellini, who has a relationship of solid personal friendship with his former manager — have not called Conte in the past three months.
Second: Conte is at home and, as always when he is not working, he is itching to return to a dugout. On Tuesday evening he made a trip to San Siro to watch Milan lose badly to Benfica. Obviously, Juventus is among his dreams and he would respond immediately to a call — as, frankly, would many other managers, for all the difficulties. But he has not moved friends, agents, intermediaries, or anyone else to stimulate the evolution of the situation. In short: if Juventus have not called Conte, Conte has not called Juventus.
Third: it is obvious that both parties are aware of each other’s situation, and that the hypothesis of Conte one day returning to Juventus is one to keep in mind. The bond is strong, and Conte remains one of the best managers in the world — perhaps the best of all at operating in complex crisis situations.
Fourth: the problem is establishing where in the future that possibility sits. And here one must enter the thinking that connects Juventus’s ownership and current management. After changing four managers in the last two years — setting aside Montero and Brambilla — arriving at a fifth coach before three years have passed would represent a sporting and management failure unworthy of a club of Juventus’s stature. Changing the manager before the end of this season is not a scenario envisaged by the management, and even less by the ownership — both for reasons of institutional image and of personal esteem towards Spalletti.
Fifth: results are obviously the pivot around which Spalletti’s destiny revolves, as they are for any manager. But one defeat is not enough to change the scenarios — and in this specific case, it would take many defeats and a psychological environment entirely out of control before anyone arrives at thinking about a dismissal. A scenario that, right now, seems distant. But not a scenario that can be classified alongside an alien invasion.
The Rest Is Noise — but Noise That Draws Blood
The rest is chatter — noise that draws blood because Antonio Conte is a name that quickens the hearts of Juventus supporters, mostly out of love but for a minority also out of resentment, the residue of 2014 and also of the no in the summer of 2025. The fact is that when Juventus periodically relapses into the same problems that have characterised the past five years — as happened at Reggio Emilia on Sunday evening — popular sentiment coils around the idea that only he could exorcise the curse and restore the Juventus spirit, as he did so effectively in 2011.
The Urgency — Not Winning, but Being Juventus Again
As Vaciago has written and said repeatedly throughout this difficult period, Juventus does not need to return to winning — at least not immediately. What it has is the urgency of returning to being Juventus. A team with a solid character and an indestructible personality. A group that does not disintegrate at the first difficulty and does not commit the collective errors committed against Sassuolo. A squad from which a handful of genuine leaders emerge. Seeing something of that kind again — perhaps in the next two matches — could drive away the ghosts and the most pernicious gossip.
And besides: tonight a competition begins that this Juventus, even this Juventus, can genuinely aim to win. And in that case — the ghosts would disappear entirely.
