With old stories, an old acquaintance introduced himself to the old lady on Thursday. Igor Tudor reported from earlier, at his first press conference as head coach of Juventus Turin, the club, in which he was a player in the zero years and in 2020/21 assistant coach. He told Zinédine Zidane, to whom he wanted to leave the lead out of respect, but who did without it. From Alessandro Del Piero, who once pointed out to him that he shouldn’t move his socks upside down so that the witness manager was easier to wash. And Tudor, from the then young Carlo Ancelotti, told the coaches, of Fabio Capello, Marcello Lippi, who brought him to Italy at the time, into the big football world. “When I think of him, I think of Juve,” said Tudor: “I love him.”
It is of course not measurable how quickly a new coach gains a club for himself – but Tudor, 46, could have set a record with his souls stroking press conference. The stories of the past were part of this first appearance, but also the open discussion of the problems of the present in clear words, Tudor did not sitting on the podium for no reason: the Croatian has to save a season with the juve, which he loves, within nine games that should mark the departure into a new age. However, which now runs the risk of throwing them back for years.
You have to look back again to understand the whole drama. Last summer not only one trainer was introduced in Turin, but the plan for a new era. Thiago Motta, 42, stood with his ideas for the most modern football school. He had sensationally reached the Champions League with FC Bologna because he raised a daring combination game there with built -in elements of all the big coaches of the past few years. A kind of guru status had brought him in the world of tactics-and in Turin they wanted to offer him the stage for the implementation of all his ideas.
The whole club was turned upside down, somewhat radical. The transfer period determined by the Dutchman Teun Koopmeiners for more than 50 million euros from Bergamo, while the attacker Federico Chiesa was hunted off the farm in no time: Mottas listing list, which he performed in August, contained a number of players who had done a lot in the old joo. However, when the association is reinforced, you should no longer be allowed to play a role. In retrospect, you now know that less than two months after he started it was the beginning of the end for Mottas work in Turin.
For a long time, he was played in a playful disappointing achievements with the reference to project and development status, also because the minimum criteria were right: terrifying defeats like against VfB Stuttgart in the Champions League as well as against Manchester City. At least Juve collected no defeats in the league, but a tie with a few goals. Within the team, however, one hears from the club’s surroundings, it is already rumbling in winter. The fact that Motta lost the trust of the most important players like the striker Dusan Vlahovic was finally seen in the field. The Champions League off to Eindhoven, the cup off against Empoli, the 0: 4 against Atalanta Bergamo and the 0: 3 against AC Florence-such a series on Dums does not even survive coaches who have the complete trust of their team.
Motta has confirmed all the clichés that are in circulation through its generation
According to media reports, hard conversations should then have followed between manager Cristiano Giuntoli and Motta, both of whom are losers. The young coach on the one hand has confirmed all the clichés that are in circulation about his generation: Motta wanted to proceed too radically, enforce his football ideas at all costs instead of accepting compromises. To be genius, however, is not enough for large clubs, especially not if you have to convert an entire club according to the coach’s standards for possible success. It is quite possible that Motta in Turin has played his best chance for the time being to become a big coach with a big team. It was not without malice that he was also threw after a small horsepower: FC Bologna is already in fourth place in the table without Motta, just in Juventus, which is only on the side.
In Turin, however, you also lost. Giuntoli, for example, allowed that in response to the idiosyncratic Massimiliano Allegri – Motta’s most controversial but successful predecessor – not the club, but the trainer set the way. That should change now. For the time being, under Tudor, a hardworking, emotional, albeit spectacularly unsuccessful trainer, who at least knows the league well. And then under a new candidate, from the summer after the club World Cup, which can already feel closer to the observation-regardless of whether it should be CESC Fàbregas from FC Como, to whom you are currently sealing many jobs in Italy, or the desired solution with the once so successful Antonio Conte, who is currently fighting for the championship with Napoli.
A certain skepticism towards promising coaches who ruthlessly bring in their own ideas can now be felt. With the Juve, but also in other places in European football. This is the legacy of the short era Thiago Motta.