Juventus Squad Rebuild: Spalletti's Fresh Approach
At Juventus, a summer of sorting out the squad was supposed to be simple: move on the mistakes, clear the wage bill, start again. It hasn’t worked out that way.
The club still carries a heavy load of players who never quite justified their transfer fees or reputations. They arrived at the Allianz Stadium with big expectations and bigger price tags, only to fade into the background as the seasons passed. Now, in a market where few clubs are willing to gamble on underperforming talent, Juventus are discovering just how hard it is to find them a new home.
Yet on the training pitches and in the pre-season friendlies, the mood has shifted. The reason sits on the bench.
Spalletti rips up Motta’s blacklist
Under Thiago Motta, the lines were clear. As soon as he walked through the door, he split the dressing room in two: players he trusted and players he wanted out. Those on the wrong side of that divide were pushed towards the exit, with Juventus actively searching for any solution to move them off the books. Motta’s Juventus was built on exclusion. If you weren’t in his plans, you barely existed.
Luciano Spalletti has walked in and done the opposite.
No separate training groups. No early exiles. No pre-season castaways. He has folded everyone back into the squad and, crucially, onto the pitch. Even names that had become symbols of Juventus’ recent missteps – like Arthur Melo – have been pulled back into the frame and handed minutes in pre-season.
It’s not a sentimental gesture. It’s an audit.
A clean slate for the “unwanted”
Spalletti’s idea is simple: before he signs off on anyone’s departure, he wants to see them play. All of them. In his system, under his demands, in his games.
Every player, whether central to the project or placed firmly on the transfer list in previous years, has been given the same basic offer: prove you belong, or prove the club was right to try to move you on. Training sessions and friendlies have become a second chance for those who had been written off long before a ball was kicked this summer.
Italian journalist Giovanni Albanese captured the essence of this approach, explaining that Spalletti is resisting the temptation to dismiss players “a priori,” as Juventus have done too often in recent years. The coach wants to “study everyone a bit” before making his call. If the verdict is negative, he will ask the club to act. Until then, his decision is to keep them close, watch them, and judge them on what they do now, not on what they failed to do before.
For a squad that had grown used to labels – “unwanted,” “surplus,” “problem” – it is a subtle but significant change.
Decisions still coming
This doesn’t mean a reprieve for everyone. The financial reality hasn’t changed. Juventus still need to trim the group and move on players who cannot contribute at the level required. Other clubs remain cautious, and the market for underperforming high earners is as cold as ever.
What has changed is the order of events. Instead of the club deciding first and the coach adapting later, Spalletti is putting his evaluation at the centre of the process. He will recommend who should stay and who should go only after this full inspection of the squad.
If some of these players fail to convince him, Juventus will go back to the familiar task of finding them new destinations. If a few manage to surprise, the narrative around them – and around this squad rebuild – could shift quickly.
For now, the message is clear: at Juventus, reputations and past disappointments have been paused. The real verdict will come from Spalletti’s notebook when pre-season ends.
