Interesting article about Marotta on Football Italia Website:
When the transfer window closes later this summer, the dealings of Beppe Marotta will come under more scrutiny than any of his Serie A colleagues. Juventus’ new Sporting Area Director General, to give him his official title, Marotta has been tasked with rebuilding the Old Lady of Italian football after a season of unadulterated failure.
Having replaced Alessio Secco as the club’s transfer supremo, Marotta’s ability will be judged, by the majority, on the quality of new players he brings to Turin over the next few months. But that aspect alone won’t give us a complete indication of how good an official he actually is.
Rather than assessing him solely on his buys, his summer sales will probably be more of an indicator to just how talented Marotta is at this game. After all, the former Sampdoria official doesn’t have the significant lure of Champions League football to dangle in front of prospective new signings. That’ll have to wait until next year.
What he does have though is a lengthy list of players, many on significant wages, who should have been filtered out of the club by the previous regime. As well as questionable buys, Secco sold poorly too in recent years. Adrian Mutu was undersold to Fiorentina, while the much-maligned official was unable to shift the likes of David Trezeguet, Jonathan Zebina, Tiago and Christian Poulsen.
On top of those players, Marotta also has to find a buyer for Diego who cost the club €24m last year and is now surplus to requirements, given that new Coach Gigi Del Neri will play with a 4-4-2 next term. There are also doubts over the future of Felipe Melo, who cost just as much as his fellow countryman.
Finding clubs who are willing to pay enough in terms of a transfer fee and with the cash to also cover wage demands will be a testing exercise, especially for players who are just not attractive propositions – many are either coming towards the end of their careers or have had a difficult last 12 months with the Bianconeri.
Marotta’s recent summits suggest as much. Meetings with Udinese for Simone Pepe and Co, trips to Moscow for Milos Krasic, talks with Bari and Genoa over Leonardo Bonucci and negotiations for Jorge Martinez with Catania underline that buying is easier than selling.
Although Marotta should be commended for bringing a bit of direction to the outfit – he’s targeting players that fit into a specific coaching system rather than asking a rookie Coach to invent something around Diego – he can’t be hailed as the new face of Juventus until he’s got rid of some of the old ones first
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Has a good point that judging Marotta should be based on who he gets rid of and for how much.