This is a piece of news from the other day but nonetheless I wanted to share my opinion on this.
Thiago Motta is the new Juventus FC coach.
For the past four years, Juventus has won three cups: two Coppa Italia and one Supercoppa Italiana.
However, in the last four seasons the team has never really competed for the Scudetto, won by (in chronological order) Inter Milan, AC Milan, Napoli FC and Inter Milan again.
This in stark contrast with the nine seasons before, when Juventus won nine league titles in a row, a number of Coppa Italia and Supercoppa and reached the Champions League final twice.
Besides not winning, for the last four years it has been very painful to watch Juventus games because of their style of play or lack of.
Especially under Allegri’s second spell at the club, the team played a horrible style of football, mostly based on waiting out the opponent and strike in counterattacks.
The outcome of this style of play regularly left the team +20 behind the league winner.
The Juventus players have often look lost, like they don’t know what to do or don’t have a plan.
Thiago Motta has been chosen to change all of this, following up on his Champions League qualification with Bologna FC, a team that would normally fight to avoid relegation.
Regardless of whether Thiago Motta will be successful or not, to me this hopeful wait for better times is the best part of this.
There is something when I start imagining with hope how things could change.
I imagine how Juventus players will go back to enjoying the game and take it to the next level.
New players coming in and old players regaining confidence in their ability as footballers.
The team will be able to impose their style of play against stronger teams.
Like in the poem by Giacomo Leopardi, Il sabato del villaggio, the wait for the Sunday is the best part:
Questo di sette è il più gradito giorno /
Pien di speme e di gioia
(This is the best day out of the seven / full of hope and joy)
As far as me, I moved my head shaving and meal prep for the week from Saturday to Friday.
This way, I have two days ‘full of hope and joy’ to look forward too.
PS Yesterday I went to the James Vincent McMorrow gig. I will write more about this in my old music blog and post a link here.
Featured image by Juventus.com