Juventus FC is currently in the top four of Serie A, winning four of their last five matches. The club has extended coach Luciano Spalletti's contract through 2028, aiming for stability despite mixed results this season.
Despite still not quite clinching their ticket to Champions League football next season, Juventus announced they are sticking with Luciano Spalletti for the 2026-27 campaign and beyond as . I have mixed feelings about this. I understand wanting some stability moving forward — especially after back to back seasons in which you fired a coach in late-October like Juve did with Igor Tudor. Perhaps having a fourth coach in about 2 1/2 year was simply a non-starter for Juventus, and that’s not an unreasonable way of going about it. Spalletti has had success before and he’s just two years removed from leading a truly stupendous team to the title. Sure, he crashed and burned managing the Italian national team, but at this point, who hasn’t? I’m willing to overlook that. Juventus has shown flashes of improving and more cohesive play while currently in position to secure European football. The bet here is that with more time running the team and a full summer of getting more players suited to his style, Spalletti can deliver better results than what we have seen in recent years. I feel better about this than the Igor Tudor appointment, I’ll say that much. Then again, we cannot just sweep under the rug the very legitimate failures of the Spalletti era so far. Yes, he took the team in disarray after the firing of Tudor, but it’s not like he’s barely finding his parking spot at Continassa. Spalletti has coached more than 30 matches for the team and not all of them have been good. He was in charge for Juve’s embarrassing Coppa Italia elimination when they got blown about by in the quarterfinals. He was in charge for the disaster class against Galatasaray in Turkey, a game that showed a team that was as mentally and tactically fragile as we have seen recently. He averages 1.97 points per game — that’s decent, but not great. *(For context and just to get the comment section riled up. Washed up, dinosaur, choker, shell of a manager Max Allegri averaged 1.95 in 37 games. Almost the exact goddamned same.)* My point? This is far from a slam dunk appointment, and while I have hope that Spalletti can be the guy to finally turn this ship around, I do want everyone to remember that his biggest accomplishment so far as Juventus coach is — potentially — top four. The exact same result that compelled Juve leadership to give Tudor an extension last season and the exact same realm in which this team has lived in for the last six years. If this is a signing that’s betting on what this team might look like next season, I get it. If this is a signing that is supported by the actual job he has done so far? Consider me … unimpressed.
Juventus FC is currently in the top four of Serie A, with a five-point lead over Como.
Juventus extended Luciano Spalletti's contract to provide stability after previous coaching changes and to build on recent improvements.
Juventus has scored a total of 78 goals this season, with 57 in Serie A, 19 in the Champions League, and 2 in the Coppa Italia.
Spalletti has faced challenges including a poor Coppa Italia performance and a lack of consistent scoring from strikers, averaging 1.97 points per game.
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Juventus has scored 78 goals all season — 57 in Serie A, two in the Coppa Italia and 19 in the Champions League. Do you want to take a guess at how many of those goals have been scored by actual strikers?
Sixteen goals, which comes out to a cool 20% of all scores actually taken by the people whose entire job description is to score goals. Jonathan David, Loïs Openda, Dusan Vlahovic and Arek Milik have combined for a truly pitiful season as the men responsible of leading the attack for Juventus.
Juve faces their last real big test of the season against old friend Allegri and AC Milan this weekend. That’s their only remaining top-of-the-table clash and the last big hurdle in their chase for a spot in the top four. Get a result in Milan and it should be smooth sailing from there with matchups against teams in 19th, 18th, 15th and 12th place in the league at the moment of this writing on deck. Pretty hard to blow it at this point, but who knows, nothing shocks me when it comes to this team as of late. Hold on to your horses and can’t wait to see what I’m sure will be a very rational and even keeled debate about whatever transpires this Sunday in the comment section. See you next time.