I am glad to find Gattuso signing for Fiorentina as was dismayed to learn of a few sources suggesting he was being seriously considered by the Juve board hunkered down in their bunker, cut off from both the world and any sense of logic. For whilst I would have preferred him to Pirlo, I would prefer close to any manager who has shown any competency, though Rino is still very young in his coaching career and we need to move far away from rolling the dice of inexperience and hoping to strike gold.
Mihailojvic, I pray, has never been considered by the board. He is proven mainly as a poor manager so why the devil would we want him? Assume that was a bullshit rumour with zero credibility.
Which leaves a few names, and our old friend Max leading the race it appears. Though he may be eager for Madrid, who are waiting on Zidane to decide, and we may be waiting on Zidane. Not sure if I can see the frenchman coming into what is our worst period for a decade. I would be enthusiastic of course, but it makes little sense unless some major injection of capital is delivered by Exxor with a new sporting model for the manger to work more closely with the sporting director…which may be Paratici, may be Cherubini, may be someone else entirely.
I would prefer any newcomer at SD to have a longstanding connection to the role, with superb contacts and demonstrable experience and success in recruitment. Which counts out Cherubini, whose further promotion would smack of yet another case of Agnelli favourites plunged into jobs where we desperately need a proven pro.
It staggers me to ponder that after the last two seasons, the club is leaving decisions of key appointments until now and yet we have witnessed this ramshackle approach for some time. I hope that I am wrong and that we already have the manager and SD secured for next season and they have been working together already to plan the mercato. That is how any business should be run if the aim is to succeed.
I believe there is a shareholder meeting tomorrow, which will include discussions and hopefully some announcements to follow which will clear the mist and set out our plan for the Summer and beyond.
UEFA will announce their sentencing next week, which is expected to ban us from the CL for a season or two alongside a hefty fine. We will then take the case to the TAS in Geneva who are likely to suspend the UEFA sentence allowing us to participate in the CL whilst the case is considered. Add to this the potential involvement of the European Court who are rumoured to be curious of UEFA’s cartel-esque behaviour in relation to their idea of fairness. The saga could well go on for many months, even years.
Curious times.