Ten matches is a sufficient sample for a first assessment. Tuttosport’s verdict is unambiguous: clearly negative, up to this point. Three goals — at Cagliari, at Celta Vigo, against Rennes on his first start alongside Woltemade — is a figure that sits well below what the position requires. The €38m fixed fee (with up to €12m in bonuses, some achievable, others significantly less so) is framed not as an indictment but as context: Carnevali, Massara and Ottolini’s market survey found no meaningfully better option at a lower price, and Spalletti’s first-choice target — Vlahović — chose Beşiktaş and Italiano’s project over a return to Turin. The financial discussion has been set aside. What remains is the football.
A Different Player From the One Juventus Remembered
Tuttosport identifies the psychological dimension with precision. The world of Juventus remembered one player and found another a year later. Less disillusioned in some ways — no longer carrying the specific weight of a world-record move from Frankfurt to PSG that never delivered — but more marked by the wounds of a career that has never yet reached the altitude his talent promised. Disappointed by Tottenham, by a Premier League loan he spent thinking about when he would return to Turin. The mental luggage Kolo Muani carries into every Juventus performance is specific, legible, and consequential.
“His Teammates Are Improving — Kolo Is Not. Not Yet”
The most pointed observation in the article concerns the comparative trajectories within the squad. Spalletti has gradually rotated González and Woltemade alongside Kolo Muani, giving each a chance to develop a partnership with him. The results are revealing: González showed consistent growth and real form before his soleus injury ended his involvement until November; Woltemade, who risked becoming an unknown quantity after unconvincing substitute appearances, has produced three consecutive Europa League goals and is now a genuine threat for a starting place. The player they were both rotating alongside has not made a comparable step forward. The conditions Kolo Muani has been given are objectively favourable — the only true centre-forward alternative (Ekhator) has never appeared due to injury, a manager who trusts him and gives him unconditional confidence, teammates from the senior group who are personally fond of him. The context removes every external excuse.
Spalletti’s Request and “The Difference Between a Strong Player and a Champion”
The second chapter — “Spalletti’s request to Kolo Muani” — and the third — which takes its title directly from Spalletti’s post-Rennes phrase about the difference between a strong player and a champion — are behind the paywall, but the framework is set by what is visible on the first page. The post-Rennes press conference observation — that champions anticipate situations before the ball arrives, that the technical action is secondary to the mental reading — was directed at the squad in general but applies with particular force to Kolo Muani specifically. The missed chances, the positional lapses, the moments when the half-space Spalletti demanded he occupy after Celta Vigo went unfilled — these are not physical failures but failures of anticipation and reading. Today at Lecce, with González absent and the January nine still a promise rather than a presence, the alarm has sounded.
