Massimiliano Allegri’s mentor Giovanni Galeone insists the Juventus boss wants to be competitive with the Old Lady, so he snubbed an offer from Saudi Arabia but warns that Dusan Vlahovic and Federico Chiesa will leave.
Allegri is under contract at the Allianz Stadium until June 2025 but received a big offer from Saudi Arabia earlier this month. However, he was never tempted to leave Turin, as confirmed by his mentor Galeone during an interview with Radio Bianconera.
“Whoever goes there [to Saudi Arabia] does it for the money,” he admitted.
“To me, Allegri wants to be competitive with Juventus immediately and if he decides to end his career, he’ll go to Saudi Arabia. Many accept this money, and turning down certain proposals is difficult.”
Galeone was one of Allegri’s former coaches and is one of the closest friends of the Livorno-born coach.
Allegri has been pushing for Adrien Rabiot’s contract extension and the Frenchman signed a new one-year deal with the Bianconeri on Tuesday.
“He showed his qualities last season. If Juventus also sign Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, they’ll have an amazing midfield,” noted Galeone.
“He is a formidable player, I’ve talked about him with Allegri for so many years. He can help in attack and defence and raise the level of the entire team.”
Juventus will need to sell some players in the summer to balance the books and Galeone believes both Dusan Vlahovic and Federico Chiesa will leave.
“I think Juventus need to sell somebody and I think both Chiesa and Vlahovic will go. Look at Milan, Napoli and Inter, they sign nobody if they don’t sell first. It’s not easy to find a centre forward at the moment, Milik can be a solid backup, but then you need somebody who can score 20 goals otherwise there is nothing you can do.”
Galeone concluded with a comment on Napoli director Cristiano Giuntoli who is expected to move to Juventus soon.
“He’s done so well at Napoli. Honestly, I preferred somebody like Massara or Carnevali. I don’t know the relationship between Max and Giuntoli. Massara is a nice, smart guy who doesn’t like to be in the spotlight, but he knows a lot about football.”