"We are in a building phase now, but Juve's ambition is always to win". John Elkann set out the objective for the season after watching the friendly the first team won 2-0 against Next Gen in 45 minutes, sitting on the bench alongside Luciano Spalletti. Juventus finished sixth in the last league campaign and have not won the Serie A title since 2020, but the objective of this club and this team must always be to win. Fourth place may be the minimum target for the club's finances, but it is not enough for the ambitions of Juventus, from the management and manager to the team and their fans. That leaves a considerable responsibility above all for Spalletti, because the new executives have only just arrived and need to build, while the manager this year is being asked to win.
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Juventus, for Spalletti the bonuses are over: he must win. The goals from Openda and Adzic and Conte’s shadow
Put simply, beyond Elkann's words, one thing is clear: Spalletti no longer has the leeway that comes with taking over midway through a first season.Last season's poor final result was not held against him because, based only on the points Juve took from the moment he replaced Tudor, his side would have qualified for the Champions League. The blame for the failed 2025-26 season fell entirely on Comolli and certain players. Not on the Tuscan coach, despite the way Juve threw away the small cushion they had in the Champions League places over the chasing pack until a few matchdays from the end of the league season.
A new chapter starts now. Aside from failing to land Vlahovic and an experienced goalkeeper, Alisson or Dibu Martinez, Spalletti has been given the reinforcements he asked for in the market: Vicario, Celik, Lucumì, Alajbegovic, Ekhator and the confirmation of Boga. Another arrival could still come before 1 September, in midfield or attack. The club are also trying to meet Spalletti's demands in terms of outgoing business, with the departures of Openda and Adzic (curiously both on target in the first official game of the season with their respective new teams, Lyon and Sassuolo), as well as Rouhi, and with difficult negotiations to offload Di Gregorio, one defender from Rugani and Cabal, one midfielder from Miretti and Koopmeiners (in addition to Arthur being cut), and at least two from Nico Gonzalez, David, Milik and Zhegrova. On top of that, the directors are backing Spalletti in his bid to put faith in the restored Douglas Luiz.
At 6.30pm on Sunday in Frosinone, Spalletti's first real Juventus side at 100 per cent will begin to play, and he will no longer have any margin for error. In the event of a false start, we would bet that the shadow of Antonio Conte would not take long to loom over the Juventus dugout.
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