Legendary Juventus midfielder Marco Tardelli isn’t a fan of the consistent shift in the captain’s armband.
Throughout their history, the Bianconeri always had a well-defined hierarchy, mostly based on seniority, albeit character also played an important factor in the choice.
However, the situation on this front has been quite messy since Thiago Motta’s arrival.
Technically, Danilo remains the official first captain. However, the Brazilian had been a benchwarmer at the start of the season, and now has one foot outside the door with a January exit seemingly imminent.
Therefore, Motta has been appointing different captains throughout the season. At first, the honour was placed upon Federico Gatti, before switching to Andrea Cambiaso before seemingly settling on Manuel Locatelli.
With the latter serving a one-match band in the Derby della Mole against Torino, summer signing Teun Koopmeiners was the one to don the armband on Saturday.
But for Tardelli, this isn’t exactly a healthy situation, as it highlights the club’s lack of genuine leaders, while hinting that Motta would like to preserve his status as the ultimate leader of this group.
“There’s a bit of confusion, we still can’t quite understand what role many players have and above all, there’s confusion because assigning six different captain’s armbands must mean something: who is the captain of Juventus?” wondered the 1982 World Cup hero during his appearance on Rai Sport (via IlBianconero).
“If you give six captain’s armbands it means that the leader must only be the person on the bench [AKA Motta]. This is how I see it.
“I’ve never seen a club give six different armbands to players. I also give Thiago Motta an alibi as he has to create a group, but hasn’t had all the players in the squad.
“Something has to change, especially the mentality, because we’re talking about Juventus. I struggle to understand who are the points of reference in this team.”
Especially Koop was the latest captain.
The club has no soul. The proper captain is either the injured Bremer or departing Danilo.
This pretty much proves that Motta does not know who to trust as captain. Motta is not ready for a club of this stature. I think he should be demoted to Serie B or C. I think what pisses me of the most is they had a coach who is a Juventus legend, Andrea Pirlo. For his first time coaching ever he did fantastic and even brought home a couple of trophies. He won the Italian Super Cup and the Coppa Italia. Again, in his first year and as a debut coach, but they tossed him to the side because he was not good enough. They have given Allegri and Motta more of a chance than they did Pirlo and he actually did something. I will never understand the decisions this team makes anymore.