Juventus Vice President Pavel Nedved explains why the Old Lady ‘didn’t celebrate enough’ their title with Maurizio Sarri and reveals when Cristiano Ronaldo will return to Turin.
The former Bianconeri winger spoke to DAZN during the unveiling of the Serie A fixture list for the 2021-22 campaign.
The Serie A giants’ pre-season begun today with Max Allegri who returned at the Continassa after two years.
“We had spent five seasons together before he went on holiday for a couple of years, but now he is back with great motivation,” Nedved said.
Maurizio Sarri had hit out at his former club saying players didn’t celebrate their title enough when he was in charge in 2019-20.
“I am really happy of his work with us,” ensured Nedved.
“We had a good time with him, but in the end, we decided to part ways. These are normal assessments at the end of a season.
“Sarri is right when he says we didn’t celebrate enough. We had won a lot and we felt burned out, we tried again with Andrea Pirlo, but we ended in fourth. We celebrated that achievement after a long season and after winning the Coppa Italia.”
The Old Lady have been linked with a move for Manuel Locatelli, who has also attracted interest from Arsenal.
The Gunners have put the best offer on the table for Sassuolo, but the Italy starlet wants to move to Juventus.
“There will be time to talk about this,” said Nedved.
“We didn’t want to disturb him during the Euros.”
Talking about Euros, the likes of Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci were among the best players in the competition, and so was Cristiano Ronaldo who won the Golden Boot.
“It was thrilling to watch Italy, they transmitted great emotions even to myself and I am not even Italian.
“Ronaldo is on holiday now, we haven’t received any signal that he is leaving Juventus, we are waiting for him and he will return around July 25.”
Nedved, a 2003 Ballon d’Or winner, had already told a Juventus fan Ronaldo would return to Turin after his holidays.
The contract of the 36-year-old expires in June 2022.