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20 days before the start of Serie A, Juventus are shrouded in clouds: can Allegri's team once again fight concretely for first place?
"When you're at Juventus you always hope to win, we're in a construction phase and the first step will have to be to get to the Champions League, then we'll see during the current championship: maybe we can even think about the Scudetto".
If it's true that winning is the only thing that matters for Juventus , sometimes a little healthy realism doesn't hurt. Bremer has also realized this, and in an interview with today's 'Gazzetta dello Sport' he set entry into the top four places, the ones that will lead to the Champions League, as his main objective.
"Maybe we can also think about the Scudetto" : because then the discussion always ends there, with the trophies, and in fact thinking of a Juventus that doesn't win for four years in a row - excluding the Italian Cup brought home by Andrea Pirlo in 2021 - it is frankly unthinkable.
Dreams and realism, desires and limitations. With the middle market and a squad that could change, even quite profoundly, before and after the start of the next championship. The basic question that Turin is asking itself, therefore, is clear: can this Juventus really compete for the Scudetto?
THE ABSENCE FROM THE CUPS
Juventus will not play in the Champions League, they will not play in the Europa League and, after the FIFA ruling a few days ago, they will not even play in the Conference League .
Competition, the latter, which seems to be seen more as a nuisance than as a real opportunity , so much so that the bianconeri have decided not to even present an appeal.
There is no shortage of teams returning from bankruptcy seasons, forced to stay out of cup competitions and able to concentrate their energies solely on a championship that they then won: Alberto Zaccheroni's Milan in 1998/99, for example, or Juventus itself , which with Antonio Conte he started a golden cycle by winning his first championship in 2012.
Why yes, not having double commitments makes all the difference in the world . It allows you to direct your mind towards a single goal, saves mental and physical energy, eliminates international priorities, reduces the risk of injury. Here is the card, which in Turin they hope will be the winner, which Juve have every intention of playing.
THE ACCIDENT ISSUE
Nice sore point. Many, too many physical problems that last season undermined the serenity of the environment and Massimiliano Allegri's possibility of fielding the eleven that, after all, he had dreamed of and planned for the previous summer.
Above all, obviously, the doubts relating to Paul Pogba's physical condition stand out . How will French recur? Will he finally be able to leave behind the tears of months and months of suffering, or will the script repeat itself according to a cyclical pattern (injury, waiting for the return to the field, return to the field, new injury) and constantly equal to himself?
To understand even if Federico Chiesa will be able to return to what he was before getting hurt in Rome, the champion who dragged Roberto Mancini's Italy towards European triumph, the best player in our football. Another fundamental piece in building a dream called the Scudetto.
THE MARKET, A BLACK CLOUD
Then, however, there is the question of the market. Both incoming and outgoing. The new sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli called him "temporarily closed" after the arrival of Timothy Weah, and it is natural that this is the case: before being able to buy, Juventus will probably have to sell a big piece of the squad, whether it is Dusan Vlahovic or of Chiesa himself .
Vlahovic himself remains the main suspect in a departure. With the presence of Romelu Lukaku fixed in the background, despite the Belgian center forward confessing to some fans on Sunday that "I don't think the deal will be done".
Work in progress, and just over two weeks into Serie A is not exciting news. Especially for Allegri, who still doesn't know who he will have to work with from September onwards . Without forgetting the surrounding events, such as the Bonucci case and the declared desire to find a new accommodation for the former captain.
In short, only after the market is over will it be possible to discover the true face of Juventus . And understand, consequently, if a team that was so fluctuating last season, despite obtaining the third place finish on the field, can really be a credible candidate to return to the roof of Italy.