Andrea "Il Bruco Brutto" Agnelli (97 Viewers)
- Thread starter CAPITANO
- Start date
I can't argue with you Cronios, because you're not even satisfied with the stadium. So what's the point? But I will say this:
If they were only in it to appease the fans, they wouldn't build this stadium. Sure, it will generate income, but not if the sporting results don't come along with it, then they will lose money in the long term. They're not stupid, they know that we will lose fans (and that it will get difficult to gain more fans) if the club doesn't get back to winning ways.
We must also take into consideration that Calciopoli struck at a -terrible- time. The mid-2000s, exactly when the PL started reaching it's heights. Exactly when investors from all over the world, arabs, americans, thai, russians etc. came into the game (or had recently came into the game) with loads of money. New big sponsorship deals for many clubs, especially in England and Spain. While at the same time we lost ours (Tamoil, the big TV deal). The rise of German football etc. which is a great commercial product now. Seriously, Calciopoli couldn't have hit at a worse time.
The young Agnellis have had it all to do, really. The task of getting Juventus back where she belongs was very tough from that point on.
But straight after relegation, Elkann immediately wiped out debt worth almost 100 million euros. They persuaded many important players to stay, people who had set their minds on leaving, such as Trezeguet and Camoranesi. This played a huge part in our promotion. Thankfully, for us, we had heroes such as Del Piero, Nedved and Buffon, who were more than glad to stay to help the cause, in contrast to players such as Zlatan, Cannavaro, Zambrotta and Thuram, who abandoned ship.
Unfortunately, they made some errors immediately after Calciopoli that we're still paying for. Firing Deschamps, hiring people like Secco and Cobolli Gigli for instance. Blanc was good (in terms of finances and the stadium project) but he should never have been made president. They made a lot of mistakes, actually, and some of them they are making still. I can see that. But I genuinely believe that these "young Agnellis" are learning the hard way what it takes to build this great club back up again.
There's just too much activity going on with the club for this not to be true. We have a devoted president, who even watches the team train and is constantly going to games, we have a DS who's working 24/7 etc. Almost every summer, Juventus is the club that is the most active on the transfer market. Yes, I know, the mistakes we've made in the market have been frustrating as fuck, but seriously: We are BIG spenders. Not Man City big, but as big as we can be. Would they do this if their goal was just to appease the fans?
It sucks that we have made and are making mistakes, but I'm just seeing to much "will" here that I can't ignore it. I stick to what I believe: The Agnellis will get it right. I don't know when, but they will.
If they were only in it to appease the fans, they wouldn't build this stadium. Sure, it will generate income, but not if the sporting results don't come along with it, then they will lose money in the long term. They're not stupid, they know that we will lose fans (and that it will get difficult to gain more fans) if the club doesn't get back to winning ways.
We must also take into consideration that Calciopoli struck at a -terrible- time. The mid-2000s, exactly when the PL started reaching it's heights. Exactly when investors from all over the world, arabs, americans, thai, russians etc. came into the game (or had recently came into the game) with loads of money. New big sponsorship deals for many clubs, especially in England and Spain. While at the same time we lost ours (Tamoil, the big TV deal). The rise of German football etc. which is a great commercial product now. Seriously, Calciopoli couldn't have hit at a worse time.
The young Agnellis have had it all to do, really. The task of getting Juventus back where she belongs was very tough from that point on.
But straight after relegation, Elkann immediately wiped out debt worth almost 100 million euros. They persuaded many important players to stay, people who had set their minds on leaving, such as Trezeguet and Camoranesi. This played a huge part in our promotion. Thankfully, for us, we had heroes such as Del Piero, Nedved and Buffon, who were more than glad to stay to help the cause, in contrast to players such as Zlatan, Cannavaro, Zambrotta and Thuram, who abandoned ship.
Unfortunately, they made some errors immediately after Calciopoli that we're still paying for. Firing Deschamps, hiring people like Secco and Cobolli Gigli for instance. Blanc was good (in terms of finances and the stadium project) but he should never have been made president. They made a lot of mistakes, actually, and some of them they are making still. I can see that. But I genuinely believe that these "young Agnellis" are learning the hard way what it takes to build this great club back up again.
There's just too much activity going on with the club for this not to be true. We have a devoted president, who even watches the team train and is constantly going to games, we have a DS who's working 24/7 etc. Almost every summer, Juventus is the club that is the most active on the transfer market. Yes, I know, the mistakes we've made in the market have been frustrating as fuck, but seriously: We are BIG spenders. Not Man City big, but as big as we can be. Would they do this if their goal was just to appease the fans?
It sucks that we have made and are making mistakes, but I'm just seeing to much "will" here that I can't ignore it. I stick to what I believe: The Agnellis will get it right. I don't know when, but they will.
I like Andrea Agnelli quite a bit - he understands the environment, he's Juventino through and through, and I truly believe he has the best interests of the club at heart. There will be growing pains, but I believe things will get better.
I also think it's fair to say that John Elkann didn't handle the club's defense during calciopoli nearly as well as he could have; he had the means, and this club was not defended with nearly enough force. There were a lot of internal complications, but from what I've read, a great deal of that responsibility should fall on the main man in charge. We should have been fighting, and appealing everything, right from the get go - after all, we got our asses kicked in a 3 week trial that was clearly a sham. He was inexperienced, apparently got a lot of bad advice, and the results were extremely damaging. Much more than 100M dollars.
By paying off that 100M debt (I don't know all of the specifics about that, but theoretically here), he's protecting one of Exor's extremely valuable assets as much as anything. It also wouldn't reflect too well on him if he let this great club go completely to the dogs less than 5 years after Agnelli passed (cue a smartass comment or two here); the money had to be spent. He's the primary caretaker of one of the most beloved assets in world football; there is family history, and his personal responsibilities are obviously considerable.
The stadium just makes sense for a club of this size, and any competent businessman - which Elkann is - would understand that. Most large professional sports teams own their arenas/stadiums. If Italian football is going to be competitive with other top leagues, others will have to follow suit - post haste. This was long overdue.
You're right, the directors hired after Calciopoli were darn near incompetent. At least Blanc did a good job from a business/marketing standpoint, but the other two primary figures were very inexperienced and almost completely useless. I'm assuming that Elkann had some say in who was hired, given his position.
Anyway, I think it's a little difficult to paint John Elkann in a very positive light, but I think he's learned some valuable lessons, and I am pleased with the recent investment of capital that was made in the club. Hopefully things trend upwards from here.
I also think it's fair to say that John Elkann didn't handle the club's defense during calciopoli nearly as well as he could have; he had the means, and this club was not defended with nearly enough force. There were a lot of internal complications, but from what I've read, a great deal of that responsibility should fall on the main man in charge. We should have been fighting, and appealing everything, right from the get go - after all, we got our asses kicked in a 3 week trial that was clearly a sham. He was inexperienced, apparently got a lot of bad advice, and the results were extremely damaging. Much more than 100M dollars.
By paying off that 100M debt (I don't know all of the specifics about that, but theoretically here), he's protecting one of Exor's extremely valuable assets as much as anything. It also wouldn't reflect too well on him if he let this great club go completely to the dogs less than 5 years after Agnelli passed (cue a smartass comment or two here); the money had to be spent. He's the primary caretaker of one of the most beloved assets in world football; there is family history, and his personal responsibilities are obviously considerable.
The stadium just makes sense for a club of this size, and any competent businessman - which Elkann is - would understand that. Most large professional sports teams own their arenas/stadiums. If Italian football is going to be competitive with other top leagues, others will have to follow suit - post haste. This was long overdue.
You're right, the directors hired after Calciopoli were darn near incompetent. At least Blanc did a good job from a business/marketing standpoint, but the other two primary figures were very inexperienced and almost completely useless. I'm assuming that Elkann had some say in who was hired, given his position.
Anyway, I think it's a little difficult to paint John Elkann in a very positive light, but I think he's learned some valuable lessons, and I am pleased with the recent investment of capital that was made in the club. Hopefully things trend upwards from here.
Its not a coincidence that other leagues rose in the wake of Calciopoli. Secondly who cares if we are 'big spenders'. That counts for nothing. I don't see anyone complaining that we haven't devoted enough funds to rebuilding our squad, its the misallocations of those funds that is a direct cause of poor performance. In fact, I find it very embarrassing that we are dubbed Europes big spenders of the previous two summer markets and yet have nothing to show for it. If we are spending so much and performing so poorly then that alone is the failure of our management in terms of our squad and our finances.
