Juve, Tudor to save the season. Motta: story of a love that ended early

In the end, the defeat of Florence it was really fatal to Thiago Motta: in the late afternoon yesterday, in fact, the Juventus has made official the dismissal of the Italian-Brazilian coach and his replacement with Tudor Igor. He did it in a rather unusual manner and time frame for the black and white club, at the end of seven days of meetings, discussions and surveys in which the delegitimization of Motta in the eyes of everyone, insiders, fans and team, was effectively accomplished, to the point that, regardless of the identity of the new coach, it would not have made sense to present on the bench against Genoa, on Saturday, a coach without a future.

The race to replace him has finally been won Tudor Igor, already a former Juventus player on the pitch and on the bench in Pirlo's staff, who has been convinced to accept the role of ferryman: the club has not communicated the details of the agreement, but the former Lazio coach, as far as we know, should have signed until June 30, with an option to renew in the event of obtaining the Champions League, with Juventus reportedly taking precautions with a unilateral clause to terminate the relationship, to be communicated by July 30. The reason? Tudor will coach the team in the last nine games of the championship and also in the Club World Cup, whose group stage ends on June 26 for the Bianconeri, but will continue in July in the event of a qualification round.

For the Juventus and for Motta the last week has been surreal: on the one hand a confirmation that highlighted a relationship that was now over, with the coach working at Continassa in the presence of a limited number of players (a good part were busy with the national teams) and Giuntoli trying to find the right balance not only with the profiles identified to take over (Tudor and Mancini), but also with Scanavino and Elkann to obtain the approval to carry out the operation now, regardless of the budget logic, a secondary but not irrelevant issue. Having obtained the approval of the owners, the technical director - it also seems, according to some reconstructions, in a rather harsh manner - proceeded to sanction the divorce.

Thiago Motta he paid for everything, including the shortcomings of management and the club, but he didn't help himself: given the authority of a Sun King, he was given carte blanche by the club - the culprit in this - creating a sort of absolutism that he exploited by centralizing the leadership on himself, by removing or setting aside veterans and non-aligned players (Danilo and Fagioli, sold in January, but also Vlahovic and Perin, disappeared from the rotation), emptying the captain's armband of meaning and continuing with too much rigidity on a game system that has never really worked, without ever questioning himself but, rather, by moving players into questionable positions.

The results proved him wrong and, after the sensational eliminations in the cups, the bad feelings came to the surface and an irremediable lack of empathy with the dressing room was discovered, resulting in the two epochal defeats against Atalanta and Fiorentina. The epilogue was inevitable: a Tudor the task of rebuilding the group from a psychological and tactical point of view, the obligation of fourth place but also the opportunity to earn a future that, reading between the lines, the club, for next season, seems to want to prepare for someone else, be it Conte or Gasperini.