Juventus Must Accept Their Share of the Blame for Maurizio Sarri's Failings

Sarriball has left the building.

That was the news which rocked Italian football on Saturday afternoon, as Juventus sat Maurizio Sarri down, looked him in the eye and said, "It's not me, it's you."

The biggest split since Brangelina - Sarrentus is no more. It's been a rocky ride since the surprise power couple went official in June 2019, and as it turns out, the old adage 'opposites attract' is actually a load of nonsense.

Sarri's appointment in Turin was originally met with scepticism, as the club famed for its mantra 'winning is not important, it's the only thing that counts' decided to deviate from tried and tested pragmatism, instead prioritising aesthetic beauty.

14 months later, those doubters have been proven right. A zebra will never change its stripes (or something like that), and no matter how hard Sarri tried, he just couldn't implement his own unique brand of football on this group of players.

Juve did claim their ninth successive league title, crossing the line with a seven-point advantage over nearest rivals Inter, but it was far from plain sailing for Sarri's men. Stale, lifeless displays plagued their campaign, as his troops seemed reluctant to embrace their new coach's ideals.

The usually reliable defence became surprisingly leaky, conceding 13 more goals than the previous season and their former imperious aura generally disintegrated. Inferior sides began to lick their lips at the prospect of facing I Bianconeri, rather than cowering with fear and begging for it to be over.

The champions looked incredibly soft at the centre after the restart in June, surrendering two-goal leads on two separate occasions, and looking unconvincing throughout. Something significant had changed at the heart of this side, and it all came to a head in Friday's shock Champions League humiliation.

In the end, a betrayal of identity was Juve's downfall. A club desperate to be applauded from all corners for not only its success, but the manner in which it reaps its rewards, turned to the man who brought the beautiful game to life during his days as Napoli coach.

But that's as far as the hierarchy's efforts went. After handing Sarri the keys to his new house, they left him alone to discover there was no central heating, no running water, and no stairs to connect the top and bottom floors.

The squad was depleted, at best. The former Napoli man has a specific style of play which his reputation hangs upon, but for him to die on this very sword, he must first be presented with the blade to do so.

Juventus' business in the transfer window last summer was simply not good enough. And that can be repeated for their dealings over the past couple of years. I Bianconeri have received so much praise for their uncanny knack of hoovering up the best free transfers on the market, recently adding the likes of Dani Alves, Emre Can, Aaron Ramsey and Adrien Rabiot to a long list of stars who joined the Turin giants for absolutely nothing.

While we all pat the Italian giants on the back for their shrewd plan, cracks have started to show. The recent additions of Ramsey and Rabiot demonstrate just how off-piste I Bianconeri have gone in their recruitment, spying and preferring opportunistic purchases to actually signing the right man for the right job.

This corner-cutting approach may be winning the financial battle off the pitch, but on it, it is only setting them back. So, how can we logically expect to see Sarri's frenetic, fast-paced and dynamic style of play really come to the fore, with a slow, ageing and lethargic midfield, consisting of Miralem Pjanic, Blaise Matuidi, Sami Khedira, Adrien Rabiot and Aaron Ramsey?

It's not going to work. By signing the pair of free agents in the summer, Juve's board effectively forgot their anniversary, and bought Sarri a bouquet of flowers from the garage on the way home from the pub.

Sarriball, as it was coined in England, is never going to come close to working, if the players don't possess the right physical attributes for this demanding style of play. And the Juve midfield is the polar opposite of those required traits.

Perhaps, those knock-off transfers were necessary though. After all, Juve's new approach appears to consist of landing marquee signings, such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Matthijs de Ligt. This is not the Juventus way, either.

Without doubt, Ronaldo has contributed in his own way, breaking Serie A records with the number of goals he relentlessly scores week in, week out. But owning a player who earns an eye-watering sum of money more than any other teammate, and failing to supplement key areas of the squad as a result, is not going to help you win the Champions League.

The Portuguese star has stood out with his superb statistics this year, but that speaks damningly to the unbalanced nature of this squad. This is the worst Juventus side since they regained control of Italian football almost a decade ago.

So, Sarri had less to work with than all the managers that went before him, and still delivered some success, in a much more competitive division. He also got the best out of the players at his disposal, turning Rodrigo Bentancur and Paulo Dybala into genuine stars of the game. De Ligt's performances improved drastically throughout the campaign too, after he was thrown into the deep end when Giorgio Chiellini suffered a career-threatening injury at the start of the season.

All in all, the Italian coach did a decent job, without taking into account the external factors. When you consider the conditions in which he was made to suffer, he did a better job than how it will inevitably be remembered. That book is now closed though, and Juventus must move on with their lives, whether they've made the right decision or not.

Lessons must be learned from this debacle. You cannot expect instant results without handing the right tools to the man in charge, and if you're not willing to offer those necessities, then pick your fighter accordingly.

Either way, president Andrea Agnelli must take a look in the mirror and analyse the inner workings of the club - particularly in the transfer window - before throwing another excellent coach - or a legendary rookie as it turns out - under the bus.

A squad rebuild - especially in midfield - must be on the cards, and the purchase of Barcelona's Arthur Melo is a step in the right direction. Juve cannot stop there though, as the heart of their squad is clearly lacking the star quality needed to get over the line on the biggest of stages.

In the end, it'll go down as a failed relationship for I Bianconeri. It won't have been a complete waste of time however, if they step back, embrace their mistakes, and share the responsibility for the role they played in this unhappily-ever-after ending.

Good luck, Mr Pirlo.