Carlo Garganese's Calcio Debate: Only Luciano Moggi Can Save Juventus From Years Of Pain & Misery
A top four place this term is looking unlikely, next season may already be written off due to bad management, Goal.com's Carlo Garganese believes that only Luciano Moggi - if he is able to return - can prevent many more years of hurt for Bianconeri fans...
When Luciano Moggi was appointed as Juventus sporting director in 1994, the club had not won the Scudetto for eight long, painful years. Despite two UEFA Cup successes in 1990 and 1993, the Bianconeri were suffering one of the worst periods in their history. Not since the 1940s during the glory days of Valentino Mazzola’s Grande Torino had Juve gone so long without capturing the championship.
It is testament to the brilliance of Moggi’s Triade containing Antonio Giraudo and Roberto Bettega, as well as coaching arrival Marcello Lippi, that Juventus immediately broke this negative trend to roar home to the 1994-95 Scudetto. During the next 12 years, Moggi’s Juventus dominated Italian football by winning a total of seven Scudetti – also taking home a Champions League, Intercontinental Cup and European Supercup among other honours.
The situation in 1994 for Juventus was not too dissimilar to that now. Although the squad Moggi inherited from departing trainer Giovanni Trapattoni boasted many stars such as the two Baggios (Roberto and Dino) and the two Germans (Juergen Kohler and Andreas Moeller) – and was far superior to Gigi Del Neri’s current roster – Moggi faced many familiar challenges. He was up against arguably the greatest ever Milan generation – who had dominated Europe for five years, won three Scudetti on the bounce, and just humiliated Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona ‘Dream Team’ 4-0 in the Champions League final in Athens. Yet some of the Rossoneri’s stalwarts, such as Franco Baresi and Mauro Tassotti, were starting to age – a similar setting to Italy’s current four-time winners on the pitch Inter.
Juventus were shaken up. The four aforementioned star players were no longer stars. Dino Baggio left for Parma, Moeller for Dortmund, while Roberto Baggio and Kohler soon lost their places in the team and were also out of the door by the end of the season. Through signings Didier Deschamps and Ciro Ferrara, as well as a youngster by the name of Alessandro Del Piero, Moggi tore up what he succeeded and built a new dynasty.
Fast forward 17 years, and a new dynasty is exactly what Juventus supporters are crying out for again. And Moggi appears the only man capable of rebuilding a crumbled empire.
Juventus’ 2-1 defeat at Palermo last night was just further evidence of the utter incompetence that has engulfed the Corso Galileo Ferraris headquarters since Moggi left them in 2006. Such is the crisis - which has seen Del Neri’s men lose four of their last six league games, and win two in 10 in all competitions, leaving them potentially seven points outside the top four in eighth place – it will now be a surprise if a Champions League slot is salvaged in the final 15 games of the season.
Juve In 2011
Palermo 2-1 Juve - Serie A - 02/02/11
Juve 1-2 Udinese - Serie A - 30/01/11
Samp 0-0 Juve - Serie A - 23/01/11
Juve 2-1 Bari - Serie A - 16/01/11
Napoli 3-0 Juve - Serie A - 09/01/11
Juve 1-4 Parma - Serie A - 06/01/11
Much was made of the disastrous four years ‘work’ by former transfer chief Alessio Secco, but his heir Giuseppe Marotta has proven every bit as inept, if not worse. Despite forking out a whopping €57 million last summer on 11 new players, Marotta has loaded the squad with loan signings. To the extent that Juve will have to part with €49.5m in June just to make the deals of Fabio Quagliarella, Alessandro Matri, Alberto Aquilani and Simone Pepe permanent. That is almost €50m just to ensure Juve are as uncompetitive in 2011-12 as they have been in 2010-11. Needless to say there will be limited transfer funds available on top of this – especially in the event of finishing outside the top four.
Now imagine what Moggi would have done with €107m at his disposal. The market magician who masterminded the swap of Inter’s Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro for reserve goalkeeper Fabian Carini (pictured, right), signed Edgar Davids for €3.5m, Adrian Mutu for free, and used the money received from Real Madrid for Zinedine Zidane to purchase three world class stars in Gianluigi Buffon, Lilian Thuram and Pavel Nedved. Luciano would have made Juventus champions in two years.
Despite this outlay, Juventus limp on without an adequate full-back and devoid of a left midfielder altogether. This brings us onto the ineptitude of Marotta’s former Sampdoria buddy Luigi Del Neri, who not for the first time in his career has proven to be out of his depth coaching a top club.
For a while the 60-year-old seemed to have rediscovered the traditional fighting spirit of the Bianconeri, as they embarked on a long unbeaten run before Christmas, but as the going got tough with Quagliarella’s injury in the new year Del Neri has displayed all his limitations.
A good coach doesn’t enforce an unsuitable formation on his team, but that is exactly what the Peter Sellers-lookalike has insisted with his beloved 4-4-2 - a system that requires width on both flanks. Juventus have been fielding just one winger for the entire campaign, and it is no surprise that an exhausted Milos Krasic is now being doubled up on by opponents who realise there is no threat from the other side. When Jose Mourinho marched in at Inter in 2008, he conceded after a few games that his favoured 4-3-3 couldn’t work.
Just one example of why Del Neri is not in the same bracket as The Special One. Another is substitutions. You can always spot a good coach by his ability to read how a match is developing and the in-game changes he decides as a result. Going for the win against Udinese on Sunday night, Del Neri’s first switch with six minutes to go was to replace the creative Alberto Aquilani with Momo ‘can’t pass six yards’ Sissoko. A minute later Alexis Sanchez scored the winner for the visitors.
Last night, 2-1 down at the Renzo Barbera, it was a similar story as Aquilani was again swapped with Sissoko after 66 minutes. Juve were utterly dominant at the time and an equaliser seemed inevitable, but they lost their fluency after the introduction of the pass-master and barring a Salvatore Sirigu save on Jorge Martinez created nothing thereafter.
Unfortunately for Juve fans, a Moggi return seems unlikely. Although his ban from football ends this year, the Italian Football Federation will likely do everything in their power to stop him from returning. Anyone who has researched the 2006 Calciopoli scandal will tell you that it was the biggest farce in the history of Italian sport – an injustice that Juventus are paying for dearly. The FIGC know this themselves, but any admission of this swindle (and the decisions/punishment/compensation as a result) to the world would make Serie A even more of a laughing stock than it already supposedly was back in 2006. Calciopoli badly damaged Calcio’s image, and it is only now – five years later – that it is starting to really recover financially and sportingly. Imagine the view of the football community, sponsors, advertisers, players, clubs, leagues, if it was disclosed what really happened? For this reason, Moggi will most probably remain the scapegoat.
And if he doesn’t, he will face opposition from the hidden hand who really controls Juventus. Although Moggi is close to president Andrea Agnelli, it is Fiat and Exor chairman John Elkann who calls all the shots in Turin. Anyone who has studied post-Calciopoli boardroom politics at Vinovo will attest that Moggi and Elkann are not exactly the best of friends!
So the odds are against a Moggi return, but then of course there is the wish of the fans who dearly love the Siena-native and have the power to demand change.
A top four place this term is looking unlikely, next season may already be written off due to bad management, Goal.com's Carlo Garganese believes that only Luciano Moggi - if he is able to return - can prevent many more years of hurt for Bianconeri fans...
When Luciano Moggi was appointed as Juventus sporting director in 1994, the club had not won the Scudetto for eight long, painful years. Despite two UEFA Cup successes in 1990 and 1993, the Bianconeri were suffering one of the worst periods in their history. Not since the 1940s during the glory days of Valentino Mazzola’s Grande Torino had Juve gone so long without capturing the championship.
It is testament to the brilliance of Moggi’s Triade containing Antonio Giraudo and Roberto Bettega, as well as coaching arrival Marcello Lippi, that Juventus immediately broke this negative trend to roar home to the 1994-95 Scudetto. During the next 12 years, Moggi’s Juventus dominated Italian football by winning a total of seven Scudetti – also taking home a Champions League, Intercontinental Cup and European Supercup among other honours.
The situation in 1994 for Juventus was not too dissimilar to that now. Although the squad Moggi inherited from departing trainer Giovanni Trapattoni boasted many stars such as the two Baggios (Roberto and Dino) and the two Germans (Juergen Kohler and Andreas Moeller) – and was far superior to Gigi Del Neri’s current roster – Moggi faced many familiar challenges. He was up against arguably the greatest ever Milan generation – who had dominated Europe for five years, won three Scudetti on the bounce, and just humiliated Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona ‘Dream Team’ 4-0 in the Champions League final in Athens. Yet some of the Rossoneri’s stalwarts, such as Franco Baresi and Mauro Tassotti, were starting to age – a similar setting to Italy’s current four-time winners on the pitch Inter.
Juventus were shaken up. The four aforementioned star players were no longer stars. Dino Baggio left for Parma, Moeller for Dortmund, while Roberto Baggio and Kohler soon lost their places in the team and were also out of the door by the end of the season. Through signings Didier Deschamps and Ciro Ferrara, as well as a youngster by the name of Alessandro Del Piero, Moggi tore up what he succeeded and built a new dynasty.
Fast forward 17 years, and a new dynasty is exactly what Juventus supporters are crying out for again. And Moggi appears the only man capable of rebuilding a crumbled empire.
Juventus’ 2-1 defeat at Palermo last night was just further evidence of the utter incompetence that has engulfed the Corso Galileo Ferraris headquarters since Moggi left them in 2006. Such is the crisis - which has seen Del Neri’s men lose four of their last six league games, and win two in 10 in all competitions, leaving them potentially seven points outside the top four in eighth place – it will now be a surprise if a Champions League slot is salvaged in the final 15 games of the season.
Juve In 2011
Palermo 2-1 Juve - Serie A - 02/02/11
Juve 1-2 Udinese - Serie A - 30/01/11
Samp 0-0 Juve - Serie A - 23/01/11
Juve 2-1 Bari - Serie A - 16/01/11
Napoli 3-0 Juve - Serie A - 09/01/11
Juve 1-4 Parma - Serie A - 06/01/11
Much was made of the disastrous four years ‘work’ by former transfer chief Alessio Secco, but his heir Giuseppe Marotta has proven every bit as inept, if not worse. Despite forking out a whopping €57 million last summer on 11 new players, Marotta has loaded the squad with loan signings. To the extent that Juve will have to part with €49.5m in June just to make the deals of Fabio Quagliarella, Alessandro Matri, Alberto Aquilani and Simone Pepe permanent. That is almost €50m just to ensure Juve are as uncompetitive in 2011-12 as they have been in 2010-11. Needless to say there will be limited transfer funds available on top of this – especially in the event of finishing outside the top four.
Now imagine what Moggi would have done with €107m at his disposal. The market magician who masterminded the swap of Inter’s Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro for reserve goalkeeper Fabian Carini (pictured, right), signed Edgar Davids for €3.5m, Adrian Mutu for free, and used the money received from Real Madrid for Zinedine Zidane to purchase three world class stars in Gianluigi Buffon, Lilian Thuram and Pavel Nedved. Luciano would have made Juventus champions in two years.
Despite this outlay, Juventus limp on without an adequate full-back and devoid of a left midfielder altogether. This brings us onto the ineptitude of Marotta’s former Sampdoria buddy Luigi Del Neri, who not for the first time in his career has proven to be out of his depth coaching a top club.
For a while the 60-year-old seemed to have rediscovered the traditional fighting spirit of the Bianconeri, as they embarked on a long unbeaten run before Christmas, but as the going got tough with Quagliarella’s injury in the new year Del Neri has displayed all his limitations.
A good coach doesn’t enforce an unsuitable formation on his team, but that is exactly what the Peter Sellers-lookalike has insisted with his beloved 4-4-2 - a system that requires width on both flanks. Juventus have been fielding just one winger for the entire campaign, and it is no surprise that an exhausted Milos Krasic is now being doubled up on by opponents who realise there is no threat from the other side. When Jose Mourinho marched in at Inter in 2008, he conceded after a few games that his favoured 4-3-3 couldn’t work.
Just one example of why Del Neri is not in the same bracket as The Special One. Another is substitutions. You can always spot a good coach by his ability to read how a match is developing and the in-game changes he decides as a result. Going for the win against Udinese on Sunday night, Del Neri’s first switch with six minutes to go was to replace the creative Alberto Aquilani with Momo ‘can’t pass six yards’ Sissoko. A minute later Alexis Sanchez scored the winner for the visitors.
Last night, 2-1 down at the Renzo Barbera, it was a similar story as Aquilani was again swapped with Sissoko after 66 minutes. Juve were utterly dominant at the time and an equaliser seemed inevitable, but they lost their fluency after the introduction of the pass-master and barring a Salvatore Sirigu save on Jorge Martinez created nothing thereafter.
Unfortunately for Juve fans, a Moggi return seems unlikely. Although his ban from football ends this year, the Italian Football Federation will likely do everything in their power to stop him from returning. Anyone who has researched the 2006 Calciopoli scandal will tell you that it was the biggest farce in the history of Italian sport – an injustice that Juventus are paying for dearly. The FIGC know this themselves, but any admission of this swindle (and the decisions/punishment/compensation as a result) to the world would make Serie A even more of a laughing stock than it already supposedly was back in 2006. Calciopoli badly damaged Calcio’s image, and it is only now – five years later – that it is starting to really recover financially and sportingly. Imagine the view of the football community, sponsors, advertisers, players, clubs, leagues, if it was disclosed what really happened? For this reason, Moggi will most probably remain the scapegoat.
And if he doesn’t, he will face opposition from the hidden hand who really controls Juventus. Although Moggi is close to president Andrea Agnelli, it is Fiat and Exor chairman John Elkann who calls all the shots in Turin. Anyone who has studied post-Calciopoli boardroom politics at Vinovo will attest that Moggi and Elkann are not exactly the best of friends!
So the odds are against a Moggi return, but then of course there is the wish of the fans who dearly love the Siena-native and have the power to demand change.
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Pazzini cost Inter €19m so why would he be €12m for us?
