None of us are happy.
The general barometer of juventini presently ranges from appalled to despondent with little in between or beyond. It’s not solely the results, it’s the performances behind them. Other than the spirited but ultimately failed fightback against Inter, they have been poor.
We cannot shrug our shoulders and pass this off as bad luck. The pattern is too clear to pretend otherwise.
The squad, under Spalletti, have proven wholly incapable of maintaining any semblance of the decent form found through the series of easier fixtures leading up to the Atalanta game. It has vanished, so completely, that as wretched as it feels to think let alone write this – we could have lost to Gala by more than the 5 conceded, and were fortunate to escape with a mere 0-2 defeat at home to Como.
Much of the blame has fallen squarely on the playing staff, with Spalletti largely absolved. That is understandable, but incomplete when viewed through a more clinical lens. The coach has made his own errors along the way. Selections and substitutions suggest a defined core, with those outside it left to stagnate unless circumstances demand otherwise — leaving the chosen few accumulating fatigue, and those in reserve lacking sharpness.
And yet, for all this, he may still represent the most viable option given our current circumstances, given the absence of clear alternatives offering any guarantee of improvement.
Another season gone to rot. Another season of two different coaches. Another season where the only hint of success is our toughest struggle yet for 4th, securing a new low-water mark.
I wish in boca al lupo to those clinging onto hopes of a fairytale trouncing of the Turks coming to town next week, whilst personally sticking to my quite steady and cynical conclusions.
The squad, as with the club as a whole, has been very badly managed for many years now. The decline to my eyes began in 2018 with Agnelli booting out Beppe and gleefully embracing the slick dress sense and glitzy dreams sold of a pathway to glory by Mendes and Paratici. Since then, our old friend Signore Marotta has found his calling elsewhere, transforming our despised rivals into the strongest outfit in Italy as we have faltered season upon season.
Legal, sporting, accounting, marketing disasters exploding with such frequency, our MO has become a steady procession of controversy, failure and upheaval. To such a degree that some of us are close to so desensitised, that even a 5-2 drubbing in Istanbul barely inspired a sigh.
Giuntoli was fired before last summer. Many felt, myself included, that he had been given too much autonomy. Some of his work looked positive, some hideous. The budget was cut significantly. His loan deals worked out well. However, his other moves are hard to judge as a success.
Some suggest Kalulu was a steal. Yet how many top sides would a RB/CB hybrid step into with a defensive aerial ability ranked 208th in Serie A? Koop, Nico, Chico, Kelly, Weah, Luiz, Thuram, Cabal, Di Gregorio.
These players were not cheap. Even excluding the loan fees for Kolo, Alcaraz and Veiga, and adjusting for the real cash value of the Luiz deal, the total looks around EU200m spent.
Do we look like a team who has seen that level of investment successfully given to the squad? I do not think so in the slightest. Which becomes more deflating when adding the sales he pushed through to fund his spree. Soule, Barrenechea, Fagioli, Hujisen, Nicolussi, Kean…I will name as players who do not appear world beaters, yet do seem as strong as if not superior talents to many we have since signed.
My analysis is not that we sold top level players on the cheap, but that we sold potential at prices we hugely exceeded to replace them with inferior/ failed members of our squad.
What many fans fail to appreciate is the bond players develop when working through the ranks at club from boy to man. This truly matters. Having been part of the environment, the culture, wearing the shirt, mixing with the seniors, meeting living legends, all while working towards following in their footsteps. This question we often see posed of ‘they are not playing for the shirt’ could well be answered, somewhat, by that line of continuity cut so grisly in recent years.
It continues a theme at the club which began under Agnelli, of moving away from a conservative, steady approach, a focus on squad building with players of the right mentality around a few stars, instead towards speculative spending, leveraging in emerging market trends, whilst forgetting to maintain focus on the heart and soul of the club. For that is where the team is built. That is where the fans live and breathe.
Of the six youngsters I mentioned above, all but Hujisen had long term connections to the club. (Some will certainly question, if not mock the inclusion of Kean, to whom I could add in Kaio Jorge at a stretch…and yet the Italian was in superb form last season, and the Brazilian has blossomed brilliantly since fully recovering from his injury nightmares)
For the sake of balance, I will add in reference to Thiago Motta – who Giuntoli apparently chose. Unfortunately the Italianised Brazilian emerged at first promising, then plateaued before seemingly losing any positive connection to the squad let alone the basics of the game. Some even suggest he is an unwitting soul-killer or soul-sucker, I am not sure of the difference but Koopmeiners is living testament to the allegation…
Regardless of the prickly, subjective dissecting of our dearly departed Mr Giuntoli, the fact remains he was given his marching orders in early June 2025.
Soon after, we saw the arrival in his ‘place’ of Damien Comolli. Who I wrote about at length here at the time.
The summer mercato that followed is best described as roughshod. The new GM entered a machine long at work on many deals, whether potential new signings, sales or contract renewals. These are not discussions that begin solely once the season has ended. Targets are identified long before. Intermediaries become involved. The strategy is decided many months before. Shaped thereafter, ideally, by discussions across the SD and coaching teams, to then be confirmed and approved by the BoD.
It was clear to most the world that we were aiming for David, Chico, Kolo and perhaps Veiga. Also that some renewals were close to signed and sealed e.g. Gatti.
I believe it reasonable to assume the other deals that eventuated had some preliminary feelers, viability investigation if not agreements in draft.
My point is that Comolli did not walk into the building, wipe the slate clean, and impose his own strategy in place of a long-established mercato process. His likely role was to place whatever pauses could be had with ongoing negotiations, and hope it was enough time to try take stock of the situation, but given the mercato is fluid, this probably did not amount to much more than a check with all those at the club he needed to trust as knowing best.
It felt as if he was brought in to pick up the bag of marbles Giuntoli had kept in his pockets, the Italian snarling fangs at anyone who wanted to play, running solo with few checks and balances in place beyond a shadowy Scanavino and ineffective Ferrero. The task of gathering those spilled marbles and making sense of them required more time than that summer allowed.
Chiellini and others already established within the club would have guided the work they strived to achieve with little time to spare, many moving parts long in motion, the CWC looming and an understanding that major sweeping changes at the club would need to wait.
The new BoD was confirmed not until November 25. It took longer to then finalise the new management structure. Peter Silverstone (Marketing Lead) and Marco Ottollini (Sporting director) joining early in the new year. With highly regarded physical conditioning expert, Darren Burgess, earlier brought in as Director of Performance.
Essentially, the new regime have only been fully in situ since late 2025/ early 26.
The main mercato of 2025 was not designed by Comolli nor the directors and other staff assembled since around him. It was the culmination of the work of others begun long before he arrived, many of whom have since left the club.
This is not a defence of the new regime, but an attempt to shed light on the misleading, or at best lazy, attribution of the last mercato to the new CEO.
They should be judged on their work, not the mess they inherited.
It takes a brave or ridiculous fan to assert that the frenchman came in last June, designed a recruitment strategy in days and proceeded to ignore all long laid foundations to follow his own path. This is fanciful and ill suited to any serious analysis.
We can look at the January window just passed — already being pointed to by some as evidence that the new regime have had their chance and failed to act. Yet it must be viewed within context.
Whilst the youth sector continued to recruit impressively (Gündüz, Licina, Oboavwoduo), the senior side saw only the departure of Rugani to Fiorentina and the temporary arrival of the solid, if unspectacular Swedish RB Holm — now sidelined through injury for several weeks.
The departure of Rugani has proven controversial — particularly in light of Bremer’s injury, which has since exposed yet again the underlying fragility of the defensive unit.
But this was not a distortion of judgment, nor an unforeseeable mistake. It was a risk — one taken within the broader reality the club now faces.
Juventus need to move players. Not just fringe assets, but anyone outside the core first XI. When concrete interest appears, it is not a luxury to weigh endlessly — it is an opportunity that must often be taken.
And the defence becoming porous without Bremer is no revelation. It is something long understood and, realistically, not something that can be properly addressed until the summer, aside from considering internal solutions such as the promotion of Javier Gil from the Next Gen.
Chiellini and the coach confirmed the search for a centre forward. The club were reportedly thwarted by Spurs, with alternative options unwilling to meet the terms on offer. Frustrating, and potentially costly.
Disappointing it may be, the reality is that strong foundations for a brighter future are rarely set down in the winter window.
A squad already heavy, many moving parts still unresolved, and a structure only recently assembled — this is not fertile ground for decisive, swift change at a crucial part of the season where most the strongest players are already set elsewhere. Add to this the constraints of FFP — not merely financial, but limiting flexibility across the squad itself.
The roster is stacked. It will prove very hard indeed to move the many unwanted players for any decent transfer fees. Why would they leave for less money at lower level clubs? There are no obvious queues forming for our offcuts. Yildiz and Thuram likely will have enticing offers, but who else?
This piece is already too long to delve thoroughly across my hopes for the Summer mercato. Which we know will be hugely impacted by where we finish in the table. CL qualification is essential for giving the new management the best opportunity to start the much needed rebuild on the right footing. Failure to achieve this and we may need to countenance the sales of the only major assets we have, in order to meet our budgetary requirements (projected first break-even balance sheet in 26/27) as well as begin the major renovations the squad is long crying out for.
I am sure and aware that others have very different opinions on where to point the finger of blame for our current predicament. My own position is to hold fire on condemning the new upper management and whatever plans they are slowly beginning to put into place until they have been given time to assess and work through a wide open summer transfer window. Much more will be needed, but the very least we all need to see are solid steps in the right direction. That is the time to judge them. Not now.
My research into Comolli last year led me to the conclusion that he has learned from the many varied roles, environments and responsibilities he has experienced through his career. That his approach is to make thorough assessments club wide, to seek a shared mission and all buying into the same values and strategy, focus on promoting from within, all underpinned by working collaboratively not as an autocrat. Whether this proves the right course for Juve remains open to debate, and will take time.
To judge him in isolation on a stint 10-20 years ago seems as useful as judging a player in the now solely on his youth career. Its a blinkered perspective which feels more a witch hunt than any semblance of objectivity.
We are a huge club which cannot pivot on a sixpence and transform with a wave of the wand. Less a Jet-ski, more a cruise liner which takes a long arc to truly turn the bow.
The (latest) new dawn, at least to my old eyes, has only just begun for the much beleaguered old lady.
We have all had enough of the constant ‘new project’ routine. The churning of coaches and management and haphazard recruitment policies.
My belief is that the new structure is taking form slowly but surely. That we will not see – and therefore cannot judge – the results of this until we begin next season, probably beyond. Until then, I suggest retaining a sliver of hope, and the threadbare belief that we have yet to see the true nature of this latest attempt to revive our long-suffering, abused and beaten La Madama.
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