JUVEPICKPIRLO
Italian champions join current trend for former players
“Well he’s screwed now,” Gennaro Gattuso told Sky Italia this week. “That’s the job.” Much like you could always count on to stick his foot in as a player and leave an X-rated tackle on an opponent, you can expect the Napoli head coach to be just as forthright as a manager, with language just as X-rated. The former Italy midfielder always gives excellent quotes to journalists and this past week was no exception when it came to the appointment of his former Milan and Italy teammate Andrea Pirlo to the Juventus hot seat. Pirlo was the shock announcement as the Old Lady’s choice to replace Mauizio Sarri. The 2006 World Cup winner was only appointed to be the club’s under-23 coach at the end of last month but with Sarri deemed surplus to requirements despite winning the Bianconeri’s ninth Serie A title in a row, Pirlo was fast-tracked. He has never had a coaching job but still Gattuso thinks his old friend is fortunate, at least for now. “He’s lucky to be starting at Juventus, but this profession is one where a great playing career is not enough,” said Gattuso. “You have to study, to work hard, and you don’t get much sleep,” Gattuso warned. Gattuso at least got his sleepless nights and studying in away from the spotlight at Swiss side Sion. Even when he returned to Italy, it was in the comparative obscurity of Palermo in Sicily rather than in the media glare of the mainland before a next move to AC Milan’s youth team. The club legend was only promoted to the first-team role when another former teammate, Vincenzo Montella, was sacked at the end of a disappointing 2018-19 season for the Rossoneri. Now, Gattuso is the Napoli boss: He guided them to the Coppa Italia, beating Sarri’s Juventus, and was speaking after his Partenopei side had gone out of the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals to Barcelona at the Camp Nou.
A different world
“Being a player and being a coach is really not the same thing at all,” Gattuso said, and he would know. “It’s a totally different profession and we can’t learn it just from books, we need to get in there and work hard. It’s a different world.” Pirlo, a mortal among men on the pitch who won four Serie A titles in four seasons with Juventus, has now entered that different world. The biggest question is whether his status as a former star buys him any more time than his predecessors in the Allianz Stadium dugout. There is no guarantee, of course, but the club looked to assuage doubts already.
“Today’s choice is based on the belief that Pirlo has what it takes to lead from his debut on the bench, an expert and talented squad to pursue new successes,” the club said in a statement on Pirlo’s announcement as Sarri’s replacement.
Sarri was sacked after winning the league, reaching the Coppa Italia final to lose on penalties and only going out of the UEFA Champions League on away goals following 80 million pound man Cristiano Ronaldo bagging a brace in their 2-1 win home over Lyon immediately prior to Sarri’s sacking.
If anything the decision to hire Pirlo brings Juventus right into the managerial mainstream.
Hiring ex-players – and unproven ones at that – is all the rage these days and nobody embodies the method more than the man who was most linked to becoming Sarri’s replacement.
Former Juventus midfielder Zinedine Zidane was reported to be top of the list and understandably so. The Frenchman has won the UEFA Champions League three times as Real Madrid manager.
Like others, zidane took over the youth team, working at Real Madrid Casilla before being handed the reins of the first team after Rafa Benitez was sacked. He lifted the Champions League that season, again the following year along with La Liga, and then a third Champions League in a row.
Still, he resigned in 2018 to be replaced by Julen Lopetegui before returning to the role in March 2019. He won La Liga again this season.
Others have tried to replicate the success, which was argaubly seen first in recent years with Pep Guardiola at Barcelona. Like Zidane, Guardiola took over the second team before making the step up and going on to dominate Spain and Europe. He was later followed by teammate Luis Enrique who also won the Champions League plus two Spanish league titles.
Outside of Spain, it has become de rigueur although not always as successfully. Thierry Henry’s time as Monaco manager ended in failure but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Frank Lampard already appear to be more successful in the English Premier League.
Solskjaer, at Manchester United, and Lampard, at Chelsea, enjoyed their first full seasons in charge this time out and both qualified their clubs for next season’s Champions League campaign.
Lampard also took the Blues to the FA Cup final while the Norwegian might yet secure a first trophy with the ongoing UEFA Europa League, which is taking place as a mini-knockout tournament in Germany as part of Eruopean football’s reaction to the coronavirus.
Pirlo’s future success remains to be seen but the decision to hire him looks a calculated risk in a world where managers are so often judged quickly. His status as a club legend will secure some immunity to the vocal criticism that follows bad results but as we have seen, the view of the Juventus board on what constitutes a bad season is a much bigger worry.
Roll on those sleepless nights.