The former Roma sporting director, who also worked with Luciano at Inter: “The national team is a wound and the Lady can heal it, it’s the ideal opportunity. The Bianconeri need his evolved game to recover”
“Spalletti is the right man to revive Juventus”. Signed by Walter Sabatini, someone who worked with the former Azzurri coach during his second experience at Roma. 2015-16 season, after the first round the Giallorossi sacked Rudi Garcia and entrusted the running bench to Spalletti, already a protagonist in the capital between 2005 and 2009 before the triumphs in Russia with Zenit. “Luciano – says sporting director Sabatini – thought that I didn’t want him. So I immediately told him: ‘If I hadn’t wanted you, you wouldn’t be the coach of Roma now’. I followed all his training sessions enraptured from the Trigoria terrace, after a week he already had the team in his hands. At Juventus he can do the same and bring the club back to the top”.
Why do you consider Spalletti the ideal man for the post-Tudor era?
“Because at Juventus, in the current situation, a coach who does things well is not enough.”
“The Bianconeri need something more and Luciano is the ideal genius to lift them up. Juventus has a lack of leadership on the pitch. When the leaders are missing, an evolved game is needed to eliminate the problems. Now it’s not enough to do things well. I haven’t spoken to Spalletti but if this were to be the club’s choice, Luciano would be the right man in the right place and at the ideal time. Juventus needs Luciano and Luciano of Juventus.”
What can Juventus be for Spalletti?
“Luciano is suffering physically from the failure with the national team, he can’t rest. The pain that the Azzurri experience caused him is not from aspirin, he lived every day in Coverciano with a patriotic spirit. To soothe the pain, Spalletti needs morphine in industrial doses and Juventus can represent that for him. An ideal and unmissable opportunity both for the club and for Luciano, a perfect marriage.”
Is Spalletti proof of (Comolli’s) algorithms?
“We’re talking about a coach who won a championship just three years ago by playing a great game: his Napoli was a futuristic and visionary football expression. You don’t need algorithms to understand it, but I’m convinced that the numbers also certify it. I’m not a statistics enthusiast, but let’s make one thing clear: in today’s world we have to live with and exploit the potential of artificial intelligence even in football. Not innovating would be a bit like continuing to write with a quill.”
Does Spalletti’s beautiful game match the Juventus DNA of ‘winning isn’t important, but it’s the only thing that matters’?
“Playing well helps produce victories. Every team must be technically elated. Or desperate.”
Totti won the Golden Shoe with Spalletti, Icardi (Inter) and Osimhen (Napoli) in the Serie A top scorer rankings: will the Tuscan coach be enough to awaken David (one goal), Vlahovic (4) and Openda (zero) in front of goal?
“Spalletti’s game is generous, advantageous for the attackers. Icardi averaged almost a goal per game at Inter, the same goes for Osimhen. Luciano always arrives in the area with 5-6 players and precise passing lines. David will return to scoring at Lille’s pace. And Vlahovic will get excited.”
Vlahovic is out of contract: how would you handle it?
“Making him play every time. Now for Juventus what counts are the matches and qualification for the next Champions League, not the future. And Vlahovic can give a big hand until the end.”
How do you imagine Yildiz in Spalletti’s game?
“I imagine him to be irrepressible. He is a fabulous talent, young but already decisive at the highest levels. Yildiz can be what Kvaratskhelia was for Spalletti’s Napoli in the Scudetto. Not so much for his characteristics, which are different, but for his impact on the team and on the matches.”
Aside from Yildiz, who are the most ‘Spalletti-esque’ players in the Juventus squad?
“Spalletti is the exaltation of beauty and also of the volume of play: all the players benefit from it. I am convinced that Koopmeiners will relaunch themselves with Luciano. If I really have to find a nitpick, perhaps Juventus will need more options in midfield. But…”.
“I don’t like giving advice from the outside, I don’t want to seem rude”.
If a very rich club signed you tomorrow, which Juventus player would you ask their president for something crazy?
“Definitely for Yildiz, but I am aware that it is not an original choice: the Turk is very valuable. I also have a soft spot for Conceiçao: tactics are important, but when I watch a match I get excited by the Portuguese’s swerves and one-on-ones.”
Tudor was sacked after 8 unsuccessful matches, three consecutive defeats (Como, Real Madrid, Lazio) and four matches without scoring. The Croatian’s main fault?
“Tudor conveyed a sense of belonging, Juve DNA and character. I don’t think he made a mistake, the team simply didn’t take off. It stayed on track, it happens.”
The club will ask Spalletti to re-evaluate Tudor’s little-used summer signings: feelings?
“I’ll tell you an anecdote from Spalletti’s time at Roma. One day he came to my office and said to me: ‘Walter, do you know that we have a champion?’. And I said: ‘Luciano, who is he?’. He was referring to Emerson Palmieri, at that time on loan from Palermo and little more than an addition. Spalletti made him take off and Emerson later played for Italy and won everything with Chelsea.”
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