From Zidane to Pogba — Different Times and Different Needs for Juventus

Juventus were home and 1–0 up at half time against Atalanta in the final game of the 2000–01 Serie A season thanks to a 6th minute thumping header from David Trezeguet, but the Scudetto was all but lost as saving it required a very unlikely scenario in a coinciding game, as it needed Parma to overturn a 2–0 deficit against AS Roma. Despite the thin chance remaining to win the title, Juventus FC announced the sacking of Carlo Ancelotti before the match’s second half even started.

It was dramatic and very unusual, but that’s exactly how it was meant to be.

The famous Luciano Moggi have now realized the need for a shock to the system after two bitter seasons on both sides of the millennia, which were tainted by underachievement. Marcelo Lippi who previously led Juve in the second half of the 1990s when the Bianconeri were undoubtedly the best side in Europe, was brought back to the club as a replacement.

Zinedine Zidane, the Juventus star who was widely regarded as the world’s best footballer went on holiday having informed the club that he wanted to move to Madrid.

Losing Zidane was always going to be perceived as a huge loss for the flagship club of Italian football, but it was perfectly suited for the fast coming wind of change which the club have planned. Zizou was at his peak, but up till that date he failed to drag the club to the kind of glory it seeked, and at 29 years of age, it was the last chance to cash-in the kind of fee that eventually kept the Frenchman for 8 years on top of the world’s list of most expensive footballers.

Whilst renowned for their caution on the transfer market, by that point Juventus already secured the signings of Lilian Thuram and Gianluigi Buffon from Parma and were preparing a bid for Lazio’s Pavel Nedved. In effect, they already spent the money they expected to receive from Zidane’s sale.

Juventus went into another successful stint under Marcelo Lippi, winning back to back Scudetti and reaching the Champions League final, only to lose on penalties against arch-rivals AC Milan. Following Lippi’s second stint, Fabio Capello was appointed at the helm, and he enjoyed in his two years with the club one of the most talented squads in the history of the Bianconeri, boasting the likes of Pavel Nedved, David Trezeguet, Alessandro Del Piero, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluigi Buffon, Patrick Vieira, and Mauro Camoranesi. The performances in the Champions League left a lot to be desired, but the status of Juventus in the very elite of European football was not to be questioned.

In the summer of 2006, the club entered the darkest period in its entire history. Relegation into Serie B, the loss of the majority of the team’s players, and the humiliation of unjustly being called match-fixers. The return to Serie A was quick, but the way back to the top was much harder.

Two seasons under Claudio Ranieri gave the fans and the club a delusion that we’re not too far from where we want to be, but the reality was totally different. Juventus endured two of the worst seasons in the club’s entire history in 2009–10 and 2010–11, beating almost every single negative record they had.

The revival started under a whole new administration led by Andrea Agnelli with the support of Giuseppe Marotta and Fabio Paratici, as with club legend Antonio Conte and master tactician Massimiliano Allegri, Juventus won five consecutive Scudetti, two Coppa Italia, and managed to assert its position on the pinnacle of Calcio.

Juventus managed to pave its way back to the top of Italian football in a feat which required people of great competence and a lot of sacrifice from the club’s owners, but Juve’s status in the very elite of European football was still to be confirmed. The Serie A which Juventus failed to win its title back in 2001, is not the same Serie A Juventus won in the last five seasons.

In 2001, Serie A still had its strong case as the world’s number one football league, while today Serie A is no longer in this debate at first place. A long list of reasons caused Serie A’s decline, which is not our topic here, but being the flagship club of Italian football, Juventus will always be responsible of restoring its previous status by earning a position amongst the very elite of European football.

The obstacles are plenty and the challenges are of paramount difficulty, especially as they’re not only on the pitch, but more so on the business side of things with the ever increasing importance of the enormous revenues the top clubs are generating in England, Spain, Germany, and even France.

Juventus is today a well drilled club determined to earn its spot on the top of European football, the club is no longer shy to state its intent publically with coach Massimilian Allegri saying, ”Winning the sixth Scudetto is our primary objective this season, as well as having a good Champions League campaign, and when I say a good Champions League campaign, I mean our objective needs to be to win it”.

Paulo Dybala, the Bianconeri’s young mercurial forward also said in an even more assured manner, “With Dani Alves and Pjanic, we can win the Champions League, Juve are on the same level as Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich now”.

Similar statements were made by several club members, winning the Champions League is an objective that the club now made very clear.

While this sort of confidence is supported by some of the performances which Juventus produced in their last two Champions League campaigns, it’s still not widely accepted yet that Juventus belongs in that exclusive club of Europe’s elite.

“Juventus must let him (Paul Pogba) go”, said the ex-Inter and French footballer Youri Djorkaeff to the Gazzetta dello Sport, “It’s pointless to keep a player who should be aspiring to play for the biggest clubs, and Juve would make a lot of money”, he added.

As childish as it may sound, this is exactly why Juventus should not sell Paul Pogba. If the decision is to be taken, selling Pogba for the much exaggerated figure of €120 million is surely not the worst thing Juve can do, as the money could be reinvested elsewhere to strengthen the team. But unlike the summer of 2001, strengthening the already very capable squad happens not to be the biggest need for Juventus today, it’s the brand of Juventus that needs the most work.

Juventus, the club who previously counted on the likes of Omar Sivori, Michael Platini, Roberto Baggio, Zinedine Zidane, Alessandro Del Piero and Pavel Nedved, should be the natural habitat for football’s household names. The Juventus brand needs to be synonymous with sporting excellence once again on a global level, and Pogba’s destined stardom will help revive the charisma of Italian football’s grand old lady.

Juve’s constant financial growth is reassuring and the club is headed indeed in the right direction, as the 2014–15 figures show a profit of €2.3 million, and revenues this year are expected to exceed €380 million. Whilst this shows the incredible quality of the Juventus management off the pitch coinciding with the team’s great success on the pitch, Juve still has a lot of catching up to do with the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Man United, and Bayern Munich. Growing the Juventus brand is a necessity which the club will eventually benefit from in the form of increased revenues in the future, helping it affirm its position at the pinnacle of the beautiful game.