Should Juventus Do Away With Deschamps?
Hadi Harake assesses Didier Deschamps’ coaching debut at Juventus, and after careful consideration, fears that France’s former World Cup winning captain may not be residing in Turin next season.
On July 10, 2006, Juventus Football Club issued a press release revealing the appointment of Didier Deschamps as first team coach for the next two years, replacing the successful but unpopular Fabio Capello, who had resigned a week earlier in order to avoid a potential Serie B experience, and joined Spanish giants Real Madrid.
It was a fairly expected decision given that the Frenchman was a former Bianconero player and possessed the necessary experience and enthusiasm to return and excel with Juventus, even if it meant playing in Serie B, which ultimately took place.
So the new coach found himself in front of a wounded team, stuck at the bottom of Italy’s second division after being hit with a point deduction penalty of negative 30, which was eventually reduced to minus 9. In addition, at least 7 fundamental players were sold in order to 'fund' the team’s financial losses: reduce total salaries to offset next season’s lower revenues.
Deschamps knew that a difficult season was ahead of him and anything less than a strong Serie B performance (read easy promotion to Serie A) would be disastrous, disgraceful for the history of Juventus and his own coaching career. Ten months later, the Italian giants are on the top of Serie B, amassing a total of 79 points in 38 games, which is quite a satisfactory result that could’ve been widened by 9 more points had the team not been penalized.
However, an intriguing question keeps bumping into the media’s first pages: Will Didier Deschamps be replaced at the end of season? Is Marcello Lippi returning to lead La Vecchia Signora for the third time in his brilliant career? Or is it going to be someone else, maybe the latest to be linked in Delio Rossi.
Something is obviously wrong. On one hand, the coach is about to achieve his main objective of winning the second division and returning to Serie A, but on the other hand there are whispers and rumors suggesting that management are looking to replace the Frenchman next term. Accordingly, let’s outline the “what went wrong” with Juventus under the leadership of Didier Deschamps.
Firstly, the Coppa Italia exit. The Turin-based giants were humiliated and thrown out of the Italian cup in its third round, before even playing against any Serie A team. A packed San Paolo stadium in Napoli witnessed this defeat when Maradona’s beloved team turned its first leg loss into a win that pushed the game into a penalty shoot-out that ended 8-7 in favor of Napoli.
The only competition that Juventus would normally be playing in, even though with their bench players, was no longer part of their schedule. Nevertheless, the Board of Directors, management and fans seemed to believe that their main and only objective this season is Serie A promotion, and that such a loss would certainly serve Juventus as a wake up call for the players in quest of success in these unusual circumstances.
Secondly, results aren’t everything fans and directors were looking for. When you’re playing against smaller teams in a weaker league, you need to impress and put on a great show, so anything less than a remarkable performance by a solid team won’t be digested by the already distressed Juventus fans.
Unfortunately, the team were far from impressive most of the time. In fact, it is only when Alessandro Del Piero showed us some of his magical touches that an overall sense of enjoyment flourished, in addition to Pavel Nedved’s great efforts and leadership. Juventus needed more than the 3 points: the team needed more goals, a firm defense, great plays, more opportunities, enthusiasm, motivation, and above all, attitude and respect.
It is expected of a team that still has four World Cup winning players in its roster, in addition to Pavel Nedved, David Trezeguet and other players of a Serie A caliber such as Zanetti, Giannichedda, Chiellini and Bojinov.
Finally, the biggest problem: the inability to pinpoint good players in the transfer market, something that will be a key now that significant sums of money must be spent. If Jean-Alain Bounsong his the king of player he would spend on, then a Juve fan will be very wary of money wasted.
Hence, although President Giovanni Cobolli Gigli recently stated that the Frenchman will remain with the team next term, Didier Deschamps certainly knows that his job is some way from being secure at the current moment.
An idealistic part of me suggestes that it is in the best interests of Juventus that he remains, because of the need to continue the process of implementing the revival plan, with patience. A change could be as big a lottery: it could accelerate them towards Serie A success, but could also hurt the gradual development of this new team.
However, as much as I personally believe that he wouldn't be disastrous, he would probably not be brilliant either, especially when pitted against Ancelotti and Spalletti, or even a much improved Roberto Mancini. Certain facts suggest that his future might be away from Turin.
Hadi Harake |
Goal.com
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, i was just shocked at the massive amount of DD support i read on just this 1 page alone 
:depressed
but dd doesnt deserve to be sack his been great for us! And he deserves to be here next season.
