It would not be unfair to say that Massimiliano Allegri’s arrival at Juventus has hardly been greeted with the greatest enthusiasm in Turin.
Or any at all for that matter. The general feeling among Juventini seems to be lukewarm at best, though more are disappointed than hostile towards their new coach.
Of course, they will back him (some more reluctantly than others) but Allegri should not be made to feel guilty for the fact that he is not Antonio Conte.
Anyone filling the shoes of a man, who had an almost flawless domestic record with the Turin giants, is going to find it difficult, and nobody is trying to suggest otherwise, but what unfortunately seems to be getting overlooked is the fact that the reigning champions are gaining a very good coach.
His credentials stand to reason and it would be churlish for anyone to turn their nose up at a man who has led a team to a league title in Serie A before, and not the greatest AC Milan side there has ever been either.
He brought the best out of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, revitalising him after his Barcelona spell in making him the focal point around which all of the Rossoneri’s attacks were centred, which in turn helped players like Antonio Nocerino flourish. See Nocerino’s first season with Zlatan for evidence as to how much the Swede helped.
Nobody, in Serie A or a Sunday League team wins a league championship by accident or by fluke. It is the reward for sustained success over a long period of time and Allegri has proven that he has the ability to do so.
He is also inheriting a far stronger team than the one he did at Milan where he took a team that had finished well off the pace in third and moulded them into champions while at Cagliari, in 2008/09 he led a team on a shoeless budget, much less a shoestring one, to an incredibly respectable ninth place finish.
These are the achievements of a coach who is highly capable of succeeding at a team already filled with star talents and born winners.
One of whom is Andrea Pirlo and of whom there is much discussion about how he and Allegri may not see eye to eye given his sparing use at the Rossoneri in that title winning season.
But he did still play 17 times in Serie A that year to contribute to the cause and it must be remembered, as has been stated by Pirlo himself on numerous occasions (most recently in his autobiography) that his departure from the club was a decision taken in the boardroom, not the dressing room.
Allegri, when it comes down to it, is quite simply the best candidate for the job. It would have been naive of a club who are bidding for a fourth straight Scudetto not to opt for experience.
They could have ‘did an AC Milan’ and promote from within and give No. 2 Massimo Carrera the job, or hand the reigns to Primavera coach Fabio Grosso. Though these are two scenarios which Juventini everywhere would probably have preferred, but when bidding for success at home and abroad (a factor which can admittedly be levelled against Allegri in the cons column of reasons for hiring him), it is best to opt for a seasoned coach and one who is also used to the pressures a top job in Italy brings and the expectation that comes with it.
Roberto Mancini has not seemed to register any interest in jumping back into coaching after his Galatasaray sojourn, Zinedine Zidane has no experience in coaching let alone at the top level, while Cesare Prandelli is perhaps cursing his luck he did not hold off on taking up Mancini’s vacant post a little while longer.
All in all, Allegri is a solid choice, he isn’t Conte sure, but he is a man who has experience in winning Serie A and a man that can bring the best out of the right players. Plus he is extremely accustomed to receiving flack from his own fans.
