It has been a disappointing campaign for the Bianconeri, who
failed to win Serie A for the first time since 2011. While Pirlo did manage to
nab fourth place on the final day of the season at the expense of Napoli,
securing Champions League football next term, it was touch-and-go as to whether
Juve would end up in the Europa League.
His departure was confirmed on Friday morning, just a few
hours before the club confirmed that Allegri would be returning to the club
where he won 11 trophies and reached two Champions League finals.
“We said goodbye two years ago with the message, ‘History
Alone’, the message on the back of the shirt given to Massimiliano Allegri by
president Andrea Agnelli with an embrace and a shirt, on which in just two
words encapsulated Allegri’s experience at Juve,” a club statement said.
“The beauty of the story, however, is that it never stops.
And in football, this means a concept that we have ingrained in our DNA: the
best victory is the next one. Always.
“And now we are ready to begin again with Allegri, to build
our future together; with his enormous professionalism, his moral strength,
with the brilliant ideas of a coach capable of shuffling the cards, both on and
off the pitch.
“With his smile, a sort of ‘signature’. With his way of
understanding football and life with simplicity, with his desire to play things
down and with the commitment to enjoy every beautiful moment that being at
Juventus can give and will give.”
Pirlo won the Coppa Italia and the Supercoppa Italiana but,
for a club as ambitious as Juve, it was never going to be enough.
He was named as Maurizio Sarri’s successor last August just
over a week after being appointed to coach the under-23s, having spent four
triumphant seasons in Turin as a player.
A statement announcing his departure said: “A few months
ago, Andrea Pirlo, an icon of world football, began his new adventure, his
first as a coach.
“To do this, first of all, it takes courage, as well as
awareness of one’s own means, especially in a period marked by thousands of
difficulties, with the world forced by the pandemic to reinvent its own rules
day after day.
“Pirlo has just begun the first steps of what will no doubt
become a brilliant career as a coach. An adventure of transformation, seeking,
and often managing, to bring his ideas and his experience as a champion on the
pitch from the ‘other side’ of the fence.
“And since in football, what counts are the victories, let’s
remember them. In the space of a few short months Pirlo’s Juve has raised two
trophies: the Italian Supercup and the Coppa Italia. And he, as coach, brought
home brilliant victories on the most prestigious of fields, from San Siro to
Camp Nou.
“For all this, for the courage, the dedication, the passion
with which he demonstrated every day, our thanks go to the Maestro, the Coach
and to Andrea, that really comes from the heart. As well as our good luck for
the future that will surely be a wonderful one.”
Allegri returns to Juve after two years away from
management. He has been linked with some of the most prestigious jobs in Europe
in that time, most recently at Real Madrid.
In his first spell at the club, between 2014 and 2019, he
won the Scudetto five times and twice led Juve to the Champions League final.
He was on the losing side on both occasions, tasting defeat against Barcelona
in 2015 and again when Juve faced Real two years later.
Allegri also won the Coppa Italia four times, making him one
of the most successful Juventus managers of all time. He also won Serie A with
AC Milan in 2011, the last time anyone other than Juve had won the title before
Antonio Conte’s success with Inter Milan this season.
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