“Pirlo is and will be the Juventus coach, that’s 100 per cent sure.”
After reassuring words from Juventus director Fabio Paratici, vice-president Pavel Nedved became the second top ranked official to offer his backing for the struggling manager, as reported by Football Italia.
The Bianconeri were shockingly beaten at home by Benevento last Sunday, which came as the latest harsh blow within a generally disappointing season.
Trailing 10 points behind Serie A leaders Inter was expected to add some doubt over the future of the young coach – not to mention the early Champions League elimination.
Nonetheless, the club’s hierarchy quickly reassured the tactician’s position for next season, which leads us to the following question:
Is the management genuinely backing Pirlo to remain at the club? Or is he eventually set to receive the kiss of Judas?
Whilst words of encouragement from the administration towards the coach should be the norm in football, in this particular case, it feels a little hard to believe.
Keeping Pirlo for the rest of the season seems to be the only logical choice at the moment – as it is already too late for a fruitful managerial change during the current campaign.
However, one would expect the club to use the remaining period of the season to carefully evaluate the manager’s work.
Although we’re not calling for Pirlo to be sacked by the end of the season – not yet at least – he needs to showcase something extra between April and May in order to earn his spot for next season.
Therefore, the Maestro would be a fool to believe the public reassurances that he’s receiving. If anything, he can just ask his predecessor.
“No” was Maurizio Sarri’s response when asked if the Champions League encounter against Lyon could be his last at Juventus.
The former Napoli boss was sacked on the next morning.
