After spending only one campaign at the club, Maurizio Sarri isn’t fondly remembered by Juventus fans.
Nonetheless, the current Lazio boss feels that he has been unfairly criticized, with the Scudetto that he won barely being celebrated by the club.
On the other hand, the chain-smoker pointed out to the fact that the Bianconeri were happy to celebrate a 4th place finish achieved by his successor, Andrea Pirlo.
Although the latter was also sent packing at the end of last season, he seemed to have earned more appreciation from the fans and club officials alike than his predecessor, despite the underwhelming results on the pitch.
Juventus vice-president and club legend, Pavel Nedved, tried to make some sense of the situation, proclaiming his admiration to Sarri’s work.
The Czech is considered to be on the the two men behind Max Allegri’s dismissal in 2019 (the other being former sporting director, Fabio Paratici), but he seems to be happy with the manager’s return.
“We had spent five seasons together before he went on holiday for a couple of years, but now he is back with great motivation,” Nedved said.
As for Sarri, here’s what the vice-president had to say on the matter.
“I am really happy of his work with us,” ensured Nedved.
“We had a good time with him, but in the end, we decided to part ways. These are normal assessments at the end of a season.
“Sarri is right when he says we didn’t celebrate enough. We had won a lot and we felt burned out, we tried again with Andrea Pirlo, but we ended in fourth. We celebrated that achievement after a long season and after winning the Coppa Italia.”
Nedved was asked about Manuel Locatelli’s expected move to the club.
“There will be time to talk about this,” said Nedved.
“We didn’t want to disturb him during the Euros.”
“It was thrilling to watch Italy, they transmitted great emotions even to myself and I am not even Italian.
Finally, the 2003 Ballon d’Or winner reassured that Cristiano Ronaldo will be a part of Juventus next season.
“Ronaldo is on holiday now, we haven’t received any signal that he is leaving Juventus, we are waiting for him and he will return around July 25.”
sarri went to us for the money, and never looked comfortable; a very strange selection by management, seconded only by the utter disaster that was pirlo.