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Tag: Nicolo Fagioli

  • Juventus Need A Youth Movement, And The Kids Have Proven They Are Alright

    Juventus Need A Youth Movement, And The Kids Have Proven They Are Alright

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    Out of the mother of necessity comes invention, as the saying goes. For Max Allegri and Juventus, this means giving youth a chance.

    Juventus, as of the last two decades, haven’t been a team renowned for bleeding through youngsters. In fact, The Old Lady has more than lived up to the ‘old’ part in their nickname, signing players in their late 20s to early 30s. Cristiano Ronaldo was 33 when he become the club’s most expensive signing ever at €100m ($103m). The previous holder of that crown was Gonzalo Higuain, when Juve signed him from Napoli aged 28 and seven months for €90m ($93m).

    Only Claudio Marchisio has succeeded in breaking into the first team on a regular basis in the 21st century, a damming indictment of Juve’s mentality. The club’s mantra of ‘winning isn’t important, it’s the only thing that matters’ demands instant results, which generally means not having the patience to develop and nurture young talent. ‘You produce them, and we’ll buy them’ is generally Juve’s attitude to talent.

    Yet this season, Allegri has had no alternative than to turn to youth. Nicolo Fagioli and Fabio Miretti have been thrust into the spotlight due to the alarming number of injuries Juve have suffered this season. Miretti has played nearly 600 minutes in Serie A this season, alternating between a central midfielder and an attacking midfielder.

    Fagioli has had to be a little bit more patient with his opportunities, but he’s certainly made the most of them. His 73rd minute curler against Lecce in Puglia brought three points back to Turin that didn’t look close to arriving before Allegri brought him on. In the Derby d’Italia, he made sure of all three points, smashing home the second after being played through by Filip Kostic with five minutes remaining.

    Injuries to Angel Di Maria, Paul Pogba and Leandro Paredes has forced Allegri’s hand, but the pair of youngsters have proved they are up to the task of playing for Italy’s biggest side. In one sense, Allegri has had little to lose in giving them game time over the past several weeks. The club are out of the Champions League and a crack at the Scudetto is also out of the question after a horrendous three months. The kids could hardly do any worse than the more experienced pros had already done.

    Samuel Iling-Jnr was also thrust into the spotlight by Allegri, first in the final 20 minutes against Benfica in Lisbon and against Lecce, and the English winger played with a refreshing directness, not to mention speed, that has been sorely missing in this Juve side for years. He provided an assist for Arkadiusz Milik in Lisbon and played a role in Fagioli’s curler down in Puglia. Only an injury to the 19-year-old’s ankle has kept him from featuring in the last several games. In light of the flashes of promise he’s shown, Juve are keen to tie him down with a new contract.

    With the club posting astronomical financial losses for the 2021-22 season, to the tune of some €254m ($263m), and in light of their early exit from the Champions League, Juve’s overall finances are in dire shape. The days of splashing massive money on players like Ronaldo and Higuain are finished, and even if the club manage to qualify for the Champions League next season, money will be scarce. The likes of Juan Cuadrado, Alex Sandro and Adrien Rabiot are likely to leave the club at the end of the season when their contracts expire, but the saving on their wages won’t be directed into the club’s transfer budget. The future of the club lies in pushing through youth like Fagioli, Miretti, Iling-Jnr, Federico Gatti and Matias Soule – another player who has benefitted from the injury crisis.

    Once the likes of Pogba, Paredes and Weston McKennie all return from injury, Allegri is likely to return to the status quo, but Paredes’ future at Juve isn’t secure past May, and McKennie could be offloaded should a suitable offer come in next summer.

    If ever Juve needed to believe in a youth movement, the time is now. With a nucleus of players that includes the likes of Dusan Vlahovic, Federico Chiesa, Manuel Locatelli and Bremer all 25 and under, but already with vast experience in Serie A, players like Fagioli, Miretti, Iling-Jnr, Gatti and Soule can reinforce a new, hungrier Juventus over the coming years, one that relies less on buying ready made superstars on massive wages and more on potential promise.

    The club need to adapt more of a Milan approach, especially with the club’s debt at record-breaking levels, than the current and chaotic philosophy. The Juve kids have shown they are alright, and the injury crisis may just be the best thing that’s happened to the club in a long time.

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    Emmet Gates, Contributor

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  • Juventus Beat Lecce Thanks To Nicolo Fagioli After He Fought To Stay At The Club

    Juventus Beat Lecce Thanks To Nicolo Fagioli After He Fought To Stay At The Club

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    Like it has been in most Juventus games over the last 18 months, Saturday night’s encounter with Lecce was a drab, dour affair that could only add to the misery of those watching in black and white.

    Fans of the Old Lady have suffered as their club was toppled from the top of the Serie A summit, then looked on helplessly as rivals passed her one by one. Inter won the Scudetto in 2021, followed by Milan last season, and Jose Mourinho’s AS Roma lifted a European trophy to really rub salt in the wounds.

    With Juve playing soulless football as the demise continued, a midweek defeat to Benfica saw them crash out of the Champions League before the Group Stage had even been completed.

    Then came the trip to the Stadio Via del Mare and the team once again delivered a dire display. As always there were plenty of excuses, starting with a list of absentees that included Gleison Bremer, Federico Chiesa, Angel Di Maria, Manuel Locatelli, Leandro Paredes, Paul Pogba and Dusan Vlahovic.

    But even so, the Bianconeri should’ve had more than enough quality to see off a Lecce side that had scored fewer goals (9) than all but one team in Serie A so far this term. Yet the visitors could find no way to open up their opponents, with Adrien Rabiot recording their first shot on target after more than 30 minutes had been played.

    Once again playing without creativity or any coherent plan of attack, Juve knocked the ball around hoping an opportunity to score might appear, lacking the ideas or inventiveness to create one.

    The sheer volume of players missing had forced Max Allegri to field a number of young players, with Fabio Miretti and Matìas Soulé – both 19 years old – inserted into the starting XI.

    The second half then saw the Coach introduce Moise Kean (22), Nicolò Fagioli (21) and Samuel Iling-Junior, and it would be a seemingly innocuous pass from the latter that finally broke the deadlock.

    Iling-Junior knocked the ball into the box where Fagioli was blocked off by a wall of red and yellow shirts but, as he turned, the smallest of gaps opened up and he curled a superbly placed shot into the top corner.

    “It was a wonderful goal, I am so happy. I’d been waiting my whole life for this moment and to do it with the Juventus jersey was just amazing,” Fagioli told DAZN after bagging his first ever Serie A goal.

    “I just wanted to run to the bench and celebrate with my teammates, because they gave me so much support during this period. It was my way of thanking them. When I took the shot, it felt like time stood still, the ball just hung in the air forever.”

    There was more than a passing resemblance to Alessandro Del Piero’s trademark finish about the goal, and it underlined the very real fact that this Juve team is capable of so much more than they are actually achieving.

    Fagioli is a youth product who has been at the club since 2015, his talent obvious from the beginning, with Allegri telling reporters in 2018 that the midfielder “knows football and its tempo very well, it’s a pleasure to watch him play.”

    Yet the Coach never fielded him during his first tenure, nor did Maurizio Sarri, Fagioli waiting until January 2021 when Andrea Pirlo gave him his debut in the Coppa Italia. A 20-minute substitute appearance in the league followed a month later, but then last season he was shipped off to Cremonese in Serie B.

    That year-long loan ended this past summer and Fagioli had to fight to stay in Turin rather than being sent out again, La Gazzetta dello Sport reporting in June that he would only sign a new contract if he was given the opportunity to play for the first team.

    He’ll turn 22 in February and had to dig his heels in for even the smallest chance, so far this season seeing a total of 104 minutes across five substitute appearances with 45 of those coming against Lecce on Saturday.

    Perhaps a match-winning goal will see him given more playing time, because that strike is one of very few bright spots in an otherwise dire campaign for Juventus. They need something different, something new, something untainted by fear and uncertainty. They need more Nicolò Fagioli.

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    Adam Digby, Contributor

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