Three days ago, Maurizio Sarri was confirmed as the new Juventus manager, replacing the outgoing Massimiliano Allegri. It was a decision which made every party involved happy. Sarri wanted a return to Italy for personal reasons, Chelsea wanted to get rid of Sarri and Juventus wanted to play an attractive brand of football.
Some excerpts from the official unveiling:
The real reason for leaving Chelsea for Juventus:
“The Premier League was a great experience, but in the latter half, I felt professional and personal needs to return to Italy. Juve are the best Italian club right now and offered me a chance to return to Italy. It’s the crowning achievement of a long career, that for 80 per cent of it was extremely tough.”
The move to Juventus from Chelsea is a step up or down?:
“Juventus are the best Italian club right now and offered me a chance to return to Italy. It’s been a long journey for me, made up of gradual steps. I’m happy to be at the most important team in Italy and this is a further step forward after the experience at Chelsea.”
Ready to work at the biggest club in Italy:
“I have never seen so much determination on the part of a club to hire a coach. They had a great attitude which convinced me, they were very strong feelings. I expect to wake up every morning studying how to win games. Winning continuously is always hard and Juventus have an obligation to always win, but with the awareness of the difficulty.
For three years, I would wake up and think about how to defeat Juventus because they were a winning team. I gave 110 per cent, but we still couldn’t do it. It was an experience and I will now give everything for this club.”
On working with Ronaldo and Dybala:
“You have to start with the talented players who can make the difference like Ronaldo, Dybala and Douglas Costa and build around them. When you have a player with the qualities of Dybala or Ronaldo, they can play in any role. What can change is only the interpretation of the role.
Coaching Ronaldo will be yet another step forward, I’d like to help him break some new records.”
On Higuain’s future:
“He is a Juventus player, so when he returns from vacation, we’ll have the opportunity to talk. It depends on Gonzalo because I get the feeling he didn’t enjoy the post-Juventus experience and was a little shaken after that season, these things happen.
If he can get a strong reaction, he can play another three to four years at a high level.”
