The geography and dynamics of Juventus’s dressing room have changed profoundly after one of the most extensive transfer windows in the club’s modern history. Nine new faces in the first team, ten departures — several of them significant in terms of their weight within Spalletti’s group. Among the many criticisms that arrived from last season, amplified by the results, was the lack of personality both on and off the pitch. Carnevali and Massara worked deliberately to address that as well as the purely tactical requirements — seeking to combine technical and tactical needs with the character profile a squad being rebuilt from the ground up demanded.
Much has been done — and perhaps a little more. The new equilibria are still being found, day by day. But something is already beginning to take shape. And in the new hierarchy of the Bianconero dressing room, one name stands out among the most unexpected.
Çelik: The Combative Instinct He Has Always Had — Perfected in Rome
The role and presence of Zeki Çelik is perhaps undervalued in the broader ecosystem of the Juventus universe — but the Turk is the classic silent leader. More than words, he lets his example, his behaviour, and his daily work on the pitch speak for him. The combative attitude is his by nature — and in Rome, the city of gladiators, he refined it to a level of excellence that makes him indispensable for every manager he works alongside. It happened with Gasperini at Roma. It is happening now with Spalletti, who promptly entrusted him with the left-back role — a tactical repositioning made necessary by the anything-but-explosive start of Andrea Cambiaso, complicated further by the ankle injury that risks ruling the Italian international out entirely for tomorrow evening’s match against Milan.
A Veteran Already — On the Pitch and in the Dressing Room
Çelik moves like a veteran inside the lines — but also beyond them. From a technical standpoint, Spalletti gave him trust immediately, recognising from the very first training sessions the total reliability and extreme versatility of the former Roma player — signed by sporting director Massara in a blitz that spirited him away precisely when he appeared destined to sign a renewal with the Giallorossi. And instead — instead Spalletti has him now. The emphasis thus far has been placed on his importance in purely footballing terms: the warrior’s attitude and the ability to operate both at right-back and left-back across different systems — as a full-back in a four, or as a wing-back in a potential 3-4-2-1.
But Çelik’s weight is felt equally inside the dressing room — because leadership is not only exercised through words. It is also the example given day by day, particularly to younger teammates. In that sense, the Turk has quickly taken the group’s reins in his hands. You cannot hear him — but his personality is already visible, in a dressing room that has changed in the most decisive of ways across a single summer. The new Juventus is finding its leaders. One of them arrived in silence. He has been making noise ever since.
