"Groups like to say: Juventus must win the championship". Luciano Spalletti looks straight into the hall and delivers strong criticism. The victory over Napoli has saved him from the bench and has once again given meaning to the black and white season. But that is not enough for him. His target is not the opponents, but some journalists. Those he calls "groups". Groups with a certain line that they must follow, who decide what Juventus must win and what other teams must do. "What they like to promote and highlight".
Spalletti identifies two main issues: the way Juventus presents itself as a team forced to win the championship and rumors of a cold relationship with Massimiliano Allegri, as well as an alleged disagreement with his assistant coach, Marco Landucci.
Spalletti rejects favourite label: "We are 13"
The first blow is related to the team's objective. Spalletti does not accept the narrative according to which the Bianconeri are the favorites for the title. According to him, this is not true if we look at the real conditions in which the team finds itself. "We are 13".
It is not an excuse, he explains, but the reality that, according to him, no one is showing properly: there are no alternatives on the bench, there is no other striker to activate, some players are tired, while the condition of the other two, Cabal and McKennie, who may have physical problems, still needs to be assessed. Without the return of the injured players and without carrying out full training sessions, the team cannot return to the proper physical condition. "Give me the tools to be at the level, otherwise they compare us with this or that. We cannot be compared with anyone now. We have to resist."
This is the message that the coach wants to convey, clearly and strongly, to the eight million fans of the "Old Lady". He had also mentioned them on the eve of the match with Napoli, recalling how much this passion and this support also constitute a source of pressure. Now he returns to the same concept, precisely after avoiding dismissal.
However, he wants to emphasize one thing: the patient, his Juventus, is still in the recovery phase. In other words, before talking about the championship title, we need to see how many players are available and what condition they are in. If no one returns, Spalletti warns, Juventus will continue to be "not at the right level in these matches."
The hug with Allegri and the history of the word "bald head"
The second part of his outburst concerns the hug with Allegri and the backstory of the claim that the latter had called him a "baldhead." Here the matter becomes personal: Spalletti wants to put an end once and for all to the history of tense relations with the Tuscan coach and his collaborator.
"We talk to Allegri. I hugged Massimiliano at the end of the match, because we met and greeted each other. For me it's a pleasure, as always, because it's not true that I don't talk to him and that we can't stand each other. We have mutual friends. He stayed two whole days at my house in the countryside, because he likes the countryside too."
Spalletti talks about the train journeys he made with Allegri and Landucci, about mutual friends and about the two days the Juventus coach spent at his country house. And, referring to that expression, he adds: “However, they want to write that he called me ‘bald head of a f*ck’ in a match like that”. For Spalletti, this is the perfect example of how this mechanism works. He repeats: “It depends on which group you belong to and what you like to highlight. Because you belong to a group”. For him, everything lies precisely here. It is not the truth that matters, but the way it is told.
