the first steps between society and the market – Corriere.it

Until the end: just to polish the motto of the new house, Cristiano Giuntoli cancels the one on the Gulf of Naples on the last day, yesterday, before everything gets complicated: a (consensual) divorce from Aurelio De Laurentiis sealed by a chirping of the company, at half past eight in the evening. From today everything would have been much more complex, between praise and stamped papers, a process that Juve, and he himself, wanted to avoid. To autograph the contract with Madame, as had been planned for months now.

He had tenacity and patience, Giuntoli, lleaving a couple of million euros on the plate of talks with its former president, between paychecks, prizes and pending payments: an offer that Mr. Cinema could not refuse. Seen through the eyes of many Juventus fans, it seemed more like a negotiation for a bomber than the engagement of a manager, due to attention and trepidation, but the manager was the pawn that Juve needed most: to restructure a club battered by two winless seasons and a sporting trial, before even rebuilding the team.

Giuntoli was the answer to a casting that was never done, so dazzling was the company sign: eight years in Naples and, it goes without saying, the Scudetto won, despite selling the silverware. From Insigne to Mertens, from Koulibaly to Fabian Ruiz, then fishing for spare parts in desolate workshops, between Kim and Kvaratskhelia. Ways to convince the owner, not just the club: a bit like it was in the spring of 2010, at the advent of Andrea Agnelli, when the men of Exor, the club’s majority shareholder, withdrew from Genoa, Samp shipyards, Beppe Marotta and Fabio Paratici.

Not just a question of football, but of philosophy: tidying up, assembling a group of players, managing them. Manual that Giuntoli, 51, begins to apply in the heart of Emilia: bringing the 60,000 inhabitants of Carpi from the suburbs of D to the jet-set of A. the time of sorcerers. For this Juve never had any doubts, and more so Francesco Calvo, who had to bear the weight of the sports area in the midst of the storm: the one who wanted it most, at the cost of taking insults (even in the literal sense) inside the walls of the Continassa. Even for the days that were running: You’ll see that I’ll be free by the 30th, Giuntoli comforted him. In some cases, it is better to bet on the revolution than to risk addiction. Already appointed sports director Giovanni Manna, one of the architects of the Next Gen, and in line with Max Allegri, Giuntoli will be the head of the technical area. They will have to take measures for each other, without excluding some friction.

A walk isn’t waiting for you: we’ll start again without the Champions League mine and with an imperative (first sell then buy) that Giuntoli knows well, since the days of Carpi. As he said to the president of the time, accepting the job: I say yes if you let me sell half of the rose. Which also means, I’m in charge here. With a decisive attitude, if necessary. Having hoisted a board of directors more fighting than governing on the bridge, Juve needed a football man. Capable, also, of scouting less conventional markets, even if some names were already on the list: da Doekhi (defender of Union Berlin) a Mazraoui
(outgoing from Bayern) e Mikautadze (Metz). All under observation, above all, starting from Pogba’s conditions and then the offers for Bremer and Vlahovic. After all, on social media, many fans have superimposed Giuntoli’s face on the graphics that welcomed Ronaldo: the other Cristiano, welcomed as a top player.