Since there's no news, but this saga finale is imminent, it's probably a good time to sum everything up. Here's my understanding of the chain of events we've witnessed for the last several weeks.
1. Max got tired and probably lost the dressing room.
2. Pavel stepped up. He talked to Conte and got his consent to come back to the club. Nedved couldn't have just come to Agnelli and said "I don't like Max, we must let him go". As a top manager of the big company, he had to bring the solution, and his solution was Conte. That's when all the rumors about Conte to Juventus surfaced.
3. Nedved voiced his stance. From this point it was inevitable: either him or Max leaves the club. Nedved's position was honest and he acted out of his understanding of what is best for the club he's responsible for. There's nothing to blame him for. He saw a problem and came up with the solution.
4. Agnelli couldn't deny the obvious: the club was in a crisis, and Nedved made a good point. It was clear that he had to part ways either with Max or with Pavel. Not the easiest decision to make, that's for sure. I believed him when he said that the decision he made was the most difficult of all his decisions as a president of Juventus.
What choices did Andrea have? To say "goodbye" to Nedved, with whom he just started a new era in terms of Juventus management? Why? He didn't do anything wrong. He took the responsibility and presented the solution for a difficult situation. Also, as an experienced businessman, Agnelli knew very well how difficult it is to find a top manager you can trust and to click with.
Max, on the other hand, was obviously tired and lacked fresh ideas. He didn't want to leave the club, and sent multiple signals about that, the biggest of which was his reference to Alex Ferguson. But Nedved had stronger position. That's when it became clear that Max would leave the club.
5. But Andrea didn't like the idea of bringing Conte back. Nedved and Paratici had to find somebody else. That's when multiple names started to get linked with Juventus: Inzaghi, Sarri, Pochettino, etc. Some of them turned out to be unavailable, others weren't experienced enough. Only Sarri was the most realistic option. And that's where we are now - the club is waiting for Sarri.
It's either this or... Pep. Why Pep? Because it would explain the following:
- that's why Zidane went to Madrid, even though he was set to join Juventus;
- that's why Max stopped caring about the results too early and made that remark about the new coach from Manchester and about how it's difficult to emulate Barca or Bayern at Juventus;
- that's why the club announced Max's contract termination so early;
- that's why many people, including folks from the financial world, are adamant: "It will be Pep".
The story about Sarri seems much more logical and clear. At the same time, the story about Pep gives answers to many questions that otherwise are impossible to answer.
In coming days we'll see which of these stories is true.