If there was any need for it, last weekend confirmed that this Juventus side was born under an unlucky star and there is no way they can redeem themselves. On a day which could have incredibly brought them back to Europe thanks to Roma’s defeat in Catania, the Bianconeri offered yet another embarrassing performance at the Stadio Tardini. Sebastian Giovinco’s goal underlined many things that have gone wrong at this club over the past few seasons.
It is beyond dispute that the faults of this disastrous campaign must be shared amongst all the members of this club, even though the players continue to defend the work of Gigi Del Neri. The manager himself doesn’t seem to realise how bad his Juve side has done this term, as he claims he has no regrets and would do everything all over again.
On the other hand, there several factors which go in favour of Del Neri: poor signings, disappointing performances from the players and an unlucky run of injuries. Mix them all together and the result is one of the most shameful campaigns in the club’s history.
President Andrea Agnelli and Director Beppe Marotta are fully responsible too, but contrary to the past few seasons, they respected the “stile Juventus” by keeping faith in the man they had appointed at the start of the season. At least that is a good sign, as finally the club and players agreed to stick with the Coach until the very end.
Questioned about his future, Del Neri argued that he has no reason to resign because he has worked as best as he possibly could. No one would disagree, but in most cases when a manager gives up his job it is because he sees there is no way things are going to improve. At this stage there is no point resigning, but had Del Neri done it earlier on this season, things could have gone differently for Juve.
Of course another man who could have considered talking about a resignation is Marotta, who - as pointed out by Luciano Moggi - is equally responsible for this season’s disaster. But he will have another season to prove himself and make up for his mistakes.
Contrary to the past, Juve should build on what they have done this term, even though it isn’t much. A new revolution may lead to yet another failure. From this perspective, unless they could land a top class manager, there would be no point in firing the current tactician to get one who has more or less the same experience.
Antonio Conte is a club idol and would certainly excite the fans who really want to get rid of Del Neri, but Juve have made the mistake of going for a “new” Josep Guardiola before. Furthermore, in terms of tactics he doesn’t have much more to offer than the current Bianconeri boss. If anything Del Neri has more experience and, as it stands, the support of the players.
Replacing him for the sake of changing doesn’t make much sense. After unproven Ciro Ferrara, who at least got them into Europe last term, Juve opted for an experienced Coach. It didn’t go well, but that is not the only reason of their failure.
If Conte is the “man” for Juve, Agnelli and Marotta will have to explain why, for instance, Gian Piero Gasperini isn’t. Gasp has more experienced than Conte, made Genoa play exciting football and did a superb job with the Bianconeri Primavera showing a great understanding of youngsters - something Juve have been looking for.
With Conte, Juve will almost be going back to what they had before Del Neri and unless they land a number of world-class players (if they can afford to) next season’s finale is likely to be as tragic as this one. But sometimes desperation confuses the minds of those in charge who are rushed to make decisions: Inter used to do it all the time, Juventus have ended up following in their footsteps.
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