Juventus CEO Backs Spalletti Amidst Chaos and Criticism
Luciano Spalletti is already under heavy scrutiny after a chaotic finale against Sassuolo, a stoppage-time collapse that saw Juventus both score and concede twice and sent the home crowd into open revolt. The chants were unmistakable: calls for Antonio Conte to come back.
Inside the club, though, the message is very different.
Carnevali backs Spalletti
CEO Giovanni Carnevali moved quickly to shield his coach, speaking to Radio Anch'io Lo Sport and making it clear there would be no panic sacking.
“Changing the manager frequently is not in my MO. I'm not considering it at all. We must plan and build. There'll be some disappointments along the way, but also some satisfactions eventually,” he said, stressing continuity over impulse.
Carnevali didn’t stop there. He doubled down on Spalletti’s credentials, underlining why the club put him at the heart of their project.
“Spalletti is an extraordinary coach, one of the absolute best for how he works on the pitch. The evaluations are constant, but you must know what you're doing. I've been here for three months, and we tried to understand the opportunities and the possibilities. We need a bit of time. We must forge ahead without dwelling on what has been done in the past.”
The message was pointed: this is a long-term build, not a quick fix.
A shared project derailed by injuries
According to Corriere dello Sport, Spalletti and the new management built this Juventus together. Every signing was agreed upon, every move weighed with a clear tactical idea in mind: a 4-2-3-1 with two reliable options in each role, a deep squad capable of sustaining a season on multiple fronts.
The Old Lady spent heavily. They did not offset that outlay with major sales. The club bet big on this version of Juventus.
Then the injuries hit early and hard, ripping through that carefully constructed plan. Serious knocks to key players shredded the depth they had just assembled and forced Spalletti to improvise before his ideas had taken root.
What was supposed to be a smooth transition became a scramble.
Spalletti under pressure, Conte in the shadows
On the touchline, Spalletti has looked subdued, almost drained, as the team struggles to find rhythm and authority. The meltdown at the end of the Sassuolo game only sharpened the criticism. That finale was abysmal, a collapse that cut straight into Juventus’ sense of control and identity.
Yet calling this a full-blown crisis would be a stretch. The season is still young. The table has not yet hardened into its final shape. A coaching change now would be drastic, bordering on reckless, especially for a club that has just built a squad in lockstep with its manager.
What Juventus do not have is time. Serie A does not slow down while a giant regroups. Spalletti and his staff must quickly identify new reference points in the dressing room, fresh technical leaders on the pitch, and a tactical makeup that works despite the absences that have wrecked the original blueprint.
Conte, of course, looms over all of this. The fans have already sung his name. His history with the club, his aura, his reputation for shock therapy – it all hangs over Spalletti’s every misstep.
Conte is not known for parachuting into jobs mid-season. That has never really been his style. But as Juventus grind through the coming months, his shadow will be there, stretching over the dugout, over every dropped point, over every late-game wobble.
If Spalletti cannot turn this careful project into a convincing team quickly, how long before that shadow starts to feel like a countdown?
