Spalletti coached Juventus, another annoying "Neapolitan"

Sports Weekly All-Media Special Correspondent in Italy Xiao Wu

There are thousands of reasons why he doesn’t like Spalletti. No matter who says he doesn’t look like the coach of Juventus. He has an eccentric personality, excellent professionalism, and is remembered for his achievements in Naples. He sounds like the next Sarri. Spalletti even has an eye-catching Napoli team emblem tattooed on his forearm. However, Juventus now has no choice. You must know that their last league championship was won by Sarri. This team urgently needs to get back on the track of championship.

Starting with his eccentric personality, except for Naples, where he became famous, it seems that in other clubs, he will always have irreconcilable conflicts with the core of the team, and finally leave in an annoying way. Spalletti is not without charisma. Unlike Sarri, Spalletti is not an image of a middle-aged Italian man who never quits smoking. He even has a strong personal style in appearance and clothing. However, unlike the charming football stars that people imagine, his "channel" is still too niche.

Spalletti loves reading and exudes a strong rural literary and artistic temperament. Generally speaking, he is good at communicating, but his words are always clouded and confusing for a while. When facing the media, he always speaks in roundabout ways, responding to doubts with an over-packaged, semi-defensive posture. Spalletti is not narrow-minded, and although his "reconciliation" with Totti has a commercial flavor, he is always happy to face these old friends again after many years. However, he also cares about everything in his interpersonal relationships. He always has a right and wrong attitude to make others mind and make himself sad.

In the final analysis, personnel management is not Spalletti's strong point, which is also the main reason for his failure in the Italian national team. In every national team training session, there is always too little time to instill technical and tactical concepts into the players, and it is always difficult to cultivate a big family atmosphere. On the contrary, this is also the reason why Conte and Mancini can succeed in the national team. Spalletti's charisma cannot inspire everyone, and he has never played the role of "father" as players call him.

Sarri was the last coach to coach Juventus to win the championship, and it was he who fired Tudor.

Martusciello (right) once formed a championship partner with Sarri at Juventus.

Spalletti has been able to rank among the first-line coaches for many years because of his excellent professionalism, that is, his technical and tactical level. In an interview with Inter Milan sporting director Ausilio, he believed that among the coaches he had worked with, the strongest "on-field" abilities were Spalletti and Conte, although many fans did not think so. Spalletti's Napoli is one of the few teams in the history of Italian football that can play well and win championships, and has made waves throughout Europe. This is by no means something ordinary coaches can do.

Even in the failure experience of the national team, the game he first led the team was amazing enough. Against Ukraine, he pioneered the use of Fratesi, allowing him to be used as a "scissors" to insert into the enemy's ribs. During the 2024 European Cup, his employment was widely questioned. Inter Milan fans were tired of him putting Bastoni in the center or even in a four-back system. However, Inter Milan will have to face this problem sooner or later. Spalletti can always bring some inspiration to the club coach.

In addition, there are talented people in Spalletti's team. His set-piece coach allowed Naples to score goals in difficult situations, and he did it in a complicated and wonderful way. In recent years, Serie A has been filled with a lot of poor set-piece designs, even among the wealthy clubs, which makes people angry. Spalletti and his team are rare masters in this area. This time Spalletti signed with Juventus and also brought an old acquaintance, Martusiello, who once won the league championship with Sarri as an assistant coach at Juventus. His role is certainly not that of a superstitious mascot. Spalletti worked with him during their time at Inter Milan. Coincidentally, Inter Milan approached Martucciello when setting up Chivu this summer, but ultimately failed to make the trip. You can imagine Spalletti's appeal in the professional field of football.

Based on Juventus' own situation, the most important point is not to let Spalletti get involved in the issue of management replacement. One of the factors for his success in Naples is the "lack" of boss De Laurentiis, which allows Spalletti to largely let go. As long as this is achieved, the lower limit of the bald coach is still guaranteed. As for personnel management, that is something that needs to be dealt with in the mid-to-late period. Spalletti has a certain prestige among players and has successful experience in recent years. This is enough.

For Spalletti, this is also a rare opportunity for him to coach a giant for the last time. In fact, according to his own thinking, if he successfully brings the Italian team to the World Cup finals, he may retire after completing his mission and spend his remaining years on the farm reading books and hugging his grandchildren. However, Juventus found him. As Spalletti himself said, "All coaches will be willing to coach Juventus." His willingness to accept a contract until June next year (with a conditional extension option) illustrates this point.

No matter how much you dislike Spalletti, you have to admit that there are not many choices for Juventus in the market right now. It is worth mentioning that the reason why this matter went so smoothly without any twists and turns is because there has long been a "Spaletti" in the Juventus club - Federico Spalletti. In 2024, Jontoli brought him to Juventus and still works in the scouting department. A father taking his son is a beautiful thing in life, and it is also a common example in football.

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