Allegri: “Juve from the Champions League, but I don’t know when Pogba will be back”

The pose is the classic one, with his hands in the pockets of his sweatpants, but his face is a little more tanned and a little less drawn than it was a month and a half ago. Massimiliano Allegri has just finished conducting his first training session in the United States. He looks around, Levi’s Stadium is beautiful and majestic but sadly empty, because the friendly against Barcelona was canceled at the last gasp due to a virus that has affected many Blaugrana players. “Sure, it would have been better to play”, is the refrain shared in the home of the San Francisco 49ers, where in homage to football McKennie, Pogba, Vlahovic and a few other teammates enjoyed throwing the oval ball. Juventus have now gotten used to managing the unexpected, the box in which they made the most stops in last year’s tortuous Monopoli, and they don’t get upset by a postponed debut. “Last year was particular – says the coach -, in terms of mental energy there was a very high expenditure. The new season will be different, we must start again with confidence”. Next to him is Cristiano Giuntoli, the new manager of the sports area, who listens and nods. These are his first days as a Juventus player “on the pitch” and the director, as Max calls him, doesn’t want to miss his coach’s first official words on 2023-24. Confidence but also a low profile, because the word Scudetto is never mentioned.

Allegri, how are Juventus and how are they starting up again after a particularly exhausting 2022-23?

“We’re starting again with the whole group available, even if we have to deal with some physical problems which, however, are normal at the beginning of the season. We’re still in July, we’ll have the whole month of August to sort out the team if we need to, otherwise we’re full like this. I want to remind you that this group finished third in the league last year, so we just need to try to restart in the best possible way. First of all, let’s wait to find out if we’ll participate in the Conference League or not, then we’ll evaluate how to move with the club and the manager. Because if we’ll play in Europe we will have to build a type of squad, without Cups we will have to build another one”.

We saw Pogba only cycling while the team trained on the pitch. A year ago there was the injury that conditioned his entire season. How much did you miss him and at what stage is his recovery?

“Not having had a player like Paul at his disposal for practically the whole season was certainly penalizing. Unfortunately at this stage he is carrying out a differentiated job: the goal is to try to recover him as soon as possible, but at the moment we don’t know when he will be able to return to training with the rest of the team”.

Will we see him on the field before the end of the tour?

“No, I don’t think I’ll be able to use him in the next two tests against Milan and Real Madrid. He’s practically never worked with us, he’s progressing well but caution is needed because the same thing happened last year too: everything seemed to be ok and then it stopped. When I see him racing, he seems to be better, but we’ll have to wait at least a month to play. We’ll have to wait at least a month to see if he can be available to the team.”

And how is Vlahovic doing? He too, like Milik, has not trained.

“The others are aches and pains at the start of the season. As for Dusan, we are trying to manage him in the best possible way, let’s not forget that at the end of last season he stopped with a groin, so now let’s make sure we don’t overload him to have him in the best conditions for the start of the season”.

Let’s talk about the game system: will it start again from 3-5-2?

“We’re working to carry on what we started last year, also for the characteristics of the players. Then sometimes the years start in one way and end in another: we need to try to improve the game situations. I certainly expect the growth of those players who did well last year despite being in their first year at Juventus and for this reason they will be able to give even more. I’m thinking of Gatti, Bremer himself, Fagioli and Miretti who paid a little more in the second half of the season than Nicolò. Then we have many others young people who we have approached for the first team and who have excellent qualities. We need to work: we have to keep a low profile, the season will be difficult and long, in this month we must be concentrated to better prepare for the start of the championship. The point, I repeat, will be to understand whether we will play in the Conference or not.”

Let’s talk about the market, even if it’s a topic you usually prefer to avoid… Juventus have so far signed Weah, bought Milik back and extended Rabiot’s contract: what is missing to complete the picture?

“Actually, I talk about the transfer market every day with the manager… Let’s evaluate the team as best as possible: if you can, you can improve, but it’s useless to hire players just to increase numbers. We have good, excellent players who can improve and grow because they’re young”.

Championship: what is the objective of Juventus restarting?

“Doing the maximum, even if it is normal that Juve should aim to return to the Champions League, because from next year it will be fundamental: it seems to me that revenues will increase by 20-30%, so for an Italian club being able to play in the Champions League is very important in many respects. And without penalty, it should be remembered, we would have played it again this year, given that we finished third on the pitch.”