hope it hasn´t been posted already:
http://gianlucadimarzio.com/en/calciomercato/marotta-keeps-getting-results-but-little-respect/
Marotta keeps getting results but little respect
Have you ever met someone who keeps achieving a lot yet he never gets credit for it? That pretty much sums up how Beppe Marotta is perceived by many Calcio fans. Before he became Juve's executive director, the club was in free fall in the standings and was also carrying considerable debt. Now Juve is on the verge of winning it's fourth scudetto in a row with a realistic chance of making it to at least the Champions league semifinals, in addition Marotta ensured Juve is in the top 10 clubs in the world for financial revenues, at a time where many Italian clubs are struggling financially. But the architect of this success, both on and off the field, is hardly ever mentioned as the reason for the club's remarkable turnaround.
Conte rightfully received a lot of the praise for the club's resurgence the first season he returned to Turin. But Marotta didn't even get the credit for hiring him, since Conte was reportedly president Andrea Agnelli's choice, if that wasn't enough many fail to point out that the team Conte had for his first scudetto as a coach featured many players brought in by Marotta including Vidal (a player Conte admitted he wasn't familiar with when he was hired), Lichtsteiner and Vucinic. Two of the key players on that team, Barzagli and Matri, were in Turin even before Conte became the coach. Of course Conte is now gone, and yet Juve keeps winning despite Marotta having to find a replacement in July, yet he doesn't get credit for that either. The summer of Conte's second season Pogba arrived, but of course for some that had nothing to do with Marotta- in their minds that was all thanks to Pogba's agent Raiola's relationship with Nedved.
The Marotta critics will point to fact sporting director Paratici is mainly responsible for picking the players- and that is true. But Marotta was the one who took the gamble to bring Paratici to Turin with him from Sampdoria when he got the Juve job. Where Marotta deserves enormous (and all of the) credit is finding creative ways to strenghten Juve's squad while vastly improving the club's balance sheet. But even for that he gets criticized, the "Marotta loan with option to buy special" is often used to mock him- but anyone who understands how finances at football clubs work, knows that is very shortsighted since this formula spreads out the cost of the player over an extra year on the financial books.
Marotta saw the damage the Diego, Amauri and Felipe Melo deals did to Juve's books. These were players with very high book values who weren't performing on the pitch (and if you understand transfer fee amortization over time you also understand why Marotta kept loaning Felipe Melo rather than selling him for pennies on the dollar). Marotta uses a formula that worked wonders for Juve- he is willing to spend a high transfer fee as long as the player earns low wages (Asamoah, Morata) or sign a player to high wages (Tevez, Pirlo, Llorente) as long as he is fairly cheap transfer wise or arrives as a free transfer. This formula ensured that each player on Juve's financial books didn't have an exorbitant figure, and is one of the main reasons Juve had no need to sell players like Vidal or Pogba even for a big offer (contrast that to what happened at Milan with Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva). But of course being disciplined like this isn't as sexy as signing someone like Alexi Sanchez who didn't fit Juve's parameters. Juve has certainly tried to get big names like Falcao, Van Persie etc over the years but they would only pull the trigger if it was on their own terms.
On top of being very disciplined, Marotta has also shown he is very creative. The deals he has made with Sassuolo in recent years are proof of that. With co ownerships being outlawed in Italy this coming summer, Marotta found a way to still reap the benefits of them, the Simone Zaza deal will be a blueprint you will see other clubs imitating. Juventus sold their half to Zaza for €8 million, but retained the right to buy him back for €15 million this summer, and €18 million in 2016- this is essentially a co ownership in disguise with set financial parameters- Zaza gets playing time and Juve can decide if he's worth the investment.
It would certainly be naive to overlook the mistakes Marotta has made. While if you support him it's easy to point to fact he brought in Morata, Pogba, Vidal, Pirlo, Barzagli and Lichtsteiner for less than PSG spent on David Luiz he has also had some deals he would love to have back. The Martinez deal with Catania comes to mind, as well as the Gabbiadini sale to Napoli just last January- but there isn't one executive with a long track record who doesn't have mistakes on their resume and Marotta was tasked with rebuilding the club.
Many of Marotta's critics like to compare him to Luciano Moggi, but in my opinion that isn't a very fair comparison. While Moggi will rightfully go down as one of the best sporting directors in the history of the sport, both for the players he acquired as well as fact he kept a balanced budget, he operated in a radically different Serie A than the one Marotta is in now. Top players were willing to come to Italy in Moggi's days, this isn't the case today for many of the top talents on market, and as great as Moggi was he also has some moves he would love to take back. Marotta has been able to keep all of Juve's stars at a time where all other top teams in Italy have to sell, he is the perfect director for this climate.
Finally Marotta is starting to get credit, the acquisitions of Tevez and Morata are changing how he's perceived and are bringing success to Juve in Europe. But just last summer I criticized Marotta for going for Morata instead of Iturbe, but he has been proven right at least so far. While the Gabbiadini deal looks very bad today, many forget that Marotta also ensured Juve fully owns defender Rugani just last January- he is the best defensive prospect in Italy and will likely be a great long term replacement for Barzagli.
Marotta has ensured Juve is set up very well for the future- the club has the best squad in Italy and still controls the destiny of many top prospects like Rugani, Berardi and Zaza. Juventus is strong enough financially that they can keep all of their best players unless they want to leave, that is saying a lot for Italy these days. As I write this article, Marotta is celebrating his 58th birthday, I wish him the best and hope he starts getting the credit he very much deserves. I suspect he is fine with his colleagues taking the credit as long as Juve keeps winning.
will be truly happy.
