Heading into the March international break, Juventus sit just fifth in the Serie A table and are at serious risk of missing out on Champions League football next season in Thiago Motta’s first campaign at the helm.
Motta led Bologna to the Champions League last season in a fairytale campaign, helping Riccardo Calafiori and Joshua Zirkzee achieve breakout seasons that earned them big-money transfers to the Premier League in summer 2024.
Now, Thiago Motta is the leading actor of a severely underperforming Juventus side, and he’s effectively discarded some of Italian football’s biggest talents, including striker Dusan Vlahovic and No. 10 Kenan Yildiz.
Although Juventus have relayed words of affirmation for Motta’s job security, the fact that there are reports circulating about possible replacements indicates that the former Italian midfielder’s job security is far from 100 percent.
Roberto Mancini could replace Thiago Motta
The latest report is from Radio Radio’s Ilario Di Giovambattista, who states that former Italian national team manager Roberto Mancini could become the next Juventus manager as soon as this weekend and actually has a meeting in place with Bianconceri ownership on Sunday.
It’s a bombshell report from an unlikely source that will need to be corroborated by other, more established reporters in Italian football, but it is credible enough information that it is turning some heads around Turin.
Napoli manager Antonio Conte was whispered by some fans as a possible splashy option, having rescued Juve in a dark period a decade ago, but Mancini would be arguably an even more unexpected name.
Although Mancini recently lost his job as the Italian national team manager after they failed to make the most recent World Cup, it’s not like his successor did any better at the 2024 European Championships – the same tournament Mancini won in 2021 to bring hope back to the Azzurri.
There aren’t many big names available who could feasibly go to Juventus, but Mancini is one of them. And there’s a school of thought that with Thiago Motta struggling to manage the more talented players in Juve or to play the kind of attacking football Juve want to see, someone with a pedigree like Mancini is a better bet for the Old Lady.
In the coming days, it will be curious to see if more reports emerge linking Mancini to Juventus and if this reported meeting does indeed occur. The Motta debate will become even more heated among fans if a name like Mancini is suddenly on the table.
Joe Soriano covers West Ham for Green Street Hammers and writes about Real Madrid for The Real Champs. He has extensive experience covering world football since 2014. Joe is an editor for The Trivela Effect, where he covers the biggest clubs in European football. He has watched professional sports regularly since 2002 and can be found playing the same sports he covers with his friends.