Juventus celebrated winning their 9th Serie A title in a row as they claimed the Scudetto at the end of the 2019/20 season. It was a league victory at the first time of asking for manager Maurizio Sarri.
The former Napoli and Chelsea coach continued in the footsteps of previous managers including Antonio Conte and Massimiliano Allegri by winning the title with Juventus.
However, the Serie A success was quickly forgotten as Juventus crashed out of the Champions League at the Round of 16 stage. The damage was done in the first leg of the tie against Lyon in France as Juventus lost the match 1-0. They fell a goal behind early in the return leg and despite coming back to win the game 2-1, Juventus were eliminated on the away goals rule.
That result was clearly not good enough for the Juventus hierarchy who wasted no time in relieving Sarri of his duties. These days it is not good enough to win only a domestic league title and with some clubs, performance levels in Europe are heavily considered in the managerial decision making process. It is also worth keeping in mind that Juventus lost 3 of their last 4 Serie A games and were beaten by Napoli in the Coppa Italia final.
With Sarri sacked, a few names were linked with the Juventus job including former Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino and current Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane. However, instead of appointing a well-established name in the world of management Juventus decided to promote from within their own ranks by naming Andrea Pirlo.
The former Juventus and Italian International midfielder not only has no experience of managing at the highest level but only recently joined Juventus as the under 23 coach. Pirlo started the job with the under 23 team just two weeks ago and did not select a single team for a match before winning promotion to the top job at the club.
There is no doubting Pirlo’s credentials and experience as a player. He played with distinction for Inter Milan, AC Milan, and Juventus among others and is a legendary player in terms of Italian football. However, that does not necessarily translate into being a great manager who is capable of leading Juventus to domestic and European success next season.
Juventus fans may see this as an exciting appointment in comparison to previous coaches such as Sarri, Allegri and Conte. Pirlo proved plenty of people wrong during his playing career and will need to do so again at the beginning of his career in management. There is going to be no time for learning the ropes, if Pirlo does not deliver both results and exciting performances with Juventus, even a legend like himself will be sacked.
At the beginning of chapter nine in his autobiography, Pirlo said, “I wouldn't bet a single cent on me becoming a manager though. It's not a job I'm attracted to. There are too many worries…”.
The question is, are Juventus fans worried that this gamble is not going to pay off?