How to cope with the departure of Antonio Conte is the big question facing champions Juventus at the start of the Serie A season this weekend.
After three titles with the Bianconeri in as many years, Conte surprised club and fans in mid-July, announcing his farewell shortly before the start of the pre-season camp.
He seemingly chose to quit because the club was unwilling to invest heavily in new top players. Conte took over the Italian national team in mid-August, while Juve began their tactical reorganisation under new coach Massimiliano Allegri.
Continuing to win in Italy and improving the team’s performance in Europe is the daunting task facing Allegri, who signed a three-year deal.
Juve fans, meanwhile, brooded over his recent past on the bench of rivals AC Milan.
Allegri, 47, was fired in January, halfway through his fourth season at the club he led to an Italian league and cup double in 2011. He played 101 Serie A games in a midfielder career mostly spent in lower divisions, and began coaching in 2003, receiving two individual awards for his managing of Cagliari, in his first Serie A experience, and Milan.
John Elkann, a heir of the Agnelli family, which traditionally controls Juve, last week tried to raise Allegri’s image among fans, saying that he has rooted for the Bianconeri since he was a boy.
“He has always been a Juventino. He told me that he had a poster of (Michel) Platini in his room,” Elkann said.
The revelation, however, did not help supporters forget Conte’s success as coach - after he won five Seria A trophies and the 1996 Champions League as a Juve midfielder.
The general feeling is that it will take a fully convincing season, both at home and in Europe, to grant Allegri full Juventino status.
The squad, meanwhile, is working to implement his tactics, which are usually based on four defenders, instead of Conte’s trademark three-man back line.
Beside the forced change of coach, Juve invested in new players, with tall Spanish striker Alvaro Morata the most expensive newcomer at 20 million euros (26.4 million dollars) from Real Madrid.
Juve have also signed French veteran defender Patrice Evra, Argentine Roberto Pereyra, Brazil-born but naturalized Romulo, and 18-year-old promising Frenchman Kingsley Coman in midfield.
Allegri’s first tests were partly convincing, beside a 1-0 defeat to Milan in a friendly last weekend.
“The form needs improving, but we have worked hard (physically) in these days,” Allegri said. “We made mistakes in some situations, but we are growing.”
Mistakes will have to be minimised when Juve play the season’s first game at Chievo on Saturday, when Allegri looks to have a complete roster, with the exception of the suspended Giorgio Chiellini.
