The Juventus season led by Thiago Motta, who should have relaunched the ambitions of the bianconeri, is already in the archives with an unsatisfactory, if not disastrous budget. And everything suggests that even before relaunching the project linked to the former Bologna technician, Juventus management has already decided to change everything. Once again.

The Torinese “life” of Gasperini

The market rumors that combine Gian Piero Gasperini at Juventus are becoming more and more insistent, fueling an interesting and a little provocative reflection: it could really Gasp Leave Atalanta to sit on the black and white bench? Thought is legitimate for many excellent reasons. The cycle of Gasperini at Atalanta seems to have come to its natural conclusion. So much so that by anticipating the times, with a twist who also surprised the Percassi, the same technician would have put his mandate back compared to the natural end of the contract that will bind him to Atalanta until June next year. Gasperini is Turinese, from Grugliasco. And it is certainly Juventus, because Juventus was born at Juventus. Even if the Juventus with whom he had worked for many years – first as a player, in 1967 and then as a youth coach for ten seasons – he was completely different from that of today.

At Juventus Gasperini trained debutants (two seasons), students (two more seasons) to close with a long cycle of six seasons in spring winning Viareggio in 2003 in a team in which Raffaele Palladino grew up, today on Fiorentina and considered one of the possible alternatives to Gasperini also for Juventus. The possible change of bench between Gasperini and Thiago Motta at the end of the season is making fans, professionals and observers discuss. On the one hand, Juventus would have everything to earn from the engagement of a coach with the vision and personality of Gasperini. On the other, the technician, who has inextricably linked his career to Atalanta, could be faced with a decision that will change his life and that could be the last great opportunity of a long -lived technician, but on the 70 -year threshold.

Juve’s mistakes

Juventus in spite of a management that over the last few years has made almost everything wrong and confronts errors that have cost tens of millions of euros and that have depleted the heritage of a club that cannot afford other failures, focuses on Gasperini for his game identity. An offensive, dynamic and fearless style, which has made high blood pressure and rapid transition its main weapons. Thiago Motta, who owes a lot to Gasperini when the technician wanted it to Genoa in 2008 after two disastrous seasons between injuries and very few appearances in the field by building around him a wonderful team, which also seemed like a plausible choice, it was not enough. And his black and white season seems to have ended, in spite of another two years of the contract.

The occasion was before

Juventus, after the first era of Allegri, needed a European playing philosophy and who gave freshness and innovation to the team. And Gasperini could have embodied the ideal change then, capable of stimulating the players by bringing the team back to a winning and ambitious mentality. So much so that in Turin – rightly – many fans would have liked Gasperini years ago, after the end of Allegri’s first cycle in 2019, when Maurizio Sarri arrived instead. Or the following year when Sarri exonerated was called to the first Pirlo team, initially contracted for the LegaPro U23. That could be the right time.

There is no doubt that Juve would represent a unrepeatable chance for Gasperini to write another chapter, perhaps the last, of his career. An easy profit higher than its current 3.5 million euros per season (excluding bonuses). A nice revenge for the technician rejected in the past by the only Top Club who had wanted him on the bench, Inter.

The differences with Atalanta

The writer knows and admires very much Gasperini: and despite a angular and sometimes not easy character, it would be great to see him on a large bench. Personally, by faithful to the nickname that the Genoa fans stuck – Gasperson – I would have liked to see him in England. Because before many other Italian coaches there is no doubt that Gasperini represented that model of managers factotum that in Italy has always struggled to impose itself. And perhaps for this too there are many reasons why Gasperini would do better not to accept Juventus. Someone sooner or later to Juve will have to open a new, possibly winning cycle. But – personal opinion – Gasperini would do better to answer “No thanks …”. It would be the perfect story, the circle that closes, the technician who wins as a prophet at home where everyone has failed. But football has already taught us that the perfect stories built at the table do not exist. Happen …

If in Bergamo Gasperini is the absolute master of the project, and has built a tailor -made team, thanks to a property that granted him the fateful white card by supporting him in all the choices – even the most divisive ones as on the occasion of the separation from Papu Gomez – Juventus, is a club that lives on immediate and burning expectations, of a constant pressure that almost always ‘kills’ the coaches. But not the managers. Gasperini has already had a bad experience in a top club, when in 2011 he was exonerated from Inter after five games, failing to make his dizzying and fearless football fruit in an environment that required immediate results.

The exaggerated pressure

Juventus is a club that does not forgive and that does not offer many error opportunities. In such a demanding context, Gasperini could risk being put under pressure from the first steps, without any possibility of developing a solid project. His style of play, which brought extraordinary results to Atalanta, could encounter difficulties in imposing himself in a reality like the Juventus one, where the patience of the fans is reduced to a minimum. And then there is a human factor. Gasperini does not make discounts: he argues with anyone when necessary, journalists and players, commentators and managers. The ‘political’ role of a coach is fundamental to Juventus: Gasperini is character as much as far away we can think of the most suitable technician on the Juventus bench.

Juventus is not a club that allows a lot of flexibility in terms of time to build. The risk of being exonerated in case of failure is always around the corner. And Gasperini may find himself fighting against a mentality that requires immediate results and having to face a work environment that does not always have tolerance for errors, even if of little entity. In summary, Juventus certainly has excellent reasons to focus on Gasperini: the need for a new identity, the desire for a truly functional technical and tactical project and tactical project, the extraordinary ability of the technician to enhance players.

The risks

But at 67, the risk to Gasperini is once again to be in a toxic environment, poisoned by failures and unhealthy confrontation with other clubs and by the inability of numerous managerial classes to create a peaceful and mature environment. Gasperini, still too good and active to think about retirement, avoids the role of sacrificable coach at least for this time: because this will happen in case of bankruptcy. His fault and his bad character that has not adapted to Juventus. When perhaps Juventus should understand who to adapt to. And to do it as soon as possible.