The failure of the season, mistakes and money thrown away on the transfer market, the never-born relationship with Spalletti: in the end Exor decided for the earthquake that forced the Bianconeri to start from scratch.
John Elkann turns Juventus around: via Damien Comolli, the man chosen a year ago to take over the Juventus universe. Rejected after a season that ended with him being out of the Champions League and marked by poor choices on the transfer market and in the management of internal relations within the club. The future has the name of Giovanni Carnevalieternal child prodigy among the managers of Italian football, never left Sassuolo and in pole position to become the reference for Continassa.
The formula is that of the French manager taking a step back once he has confronted the owners, immediately working to find a new corporate guide and start yet another sporting and economic project.
Elkann did everything with surgical precision two weeks after the sporting and economic failure of the season. He had asked to collaborate and everyone thought he would be satisfied with managing the status quo: a wrong impression. Exor was faced with a choice and in the end took its direction after having also monitored the first steps of the new seasonwhich began not without problems and contradictions on the market.
Comolli and Spalletti, a relationship that can no longer be mended
Mediation and coexistence were not possible. Not after a stormy end to the season, marked by discussions and complaints with the coach who accused the manager of not having made the requested transfer despite the pressure in the month of January. Also for this reason, in the heart of spring, the words had arrived to outline future requests starting from the physical “number 9”, à la Vlahovic, as well as men with experience in key roles.
Spalletti wanted to be the center of the new project, Comolli had to demonstrate that he was ready to take a step back with Elkann in the middle to mediate. Or, at least, to give the impression of the mediator while in reality he was weaving the canvas for the turnaround to be administered in mid-June away from prying eyes and ears. From the end of the season the managers were waiting to have operational indications for the market, budget and strategy: the silence of the owners did not mean detachment.
The platic image of the distance between Spalletti and Comolli was that of their presence a few centimeters away, but clearly ignoring each other, on the day of the anniversary of the Heysel massacre. Physical distance as well as character, impossible to heal if not at the risk of dragging out a coexistence that would put next season in danger and it would have colored all the transfer choices of the summer with suspicion and controversy: successes and failures.
Comolli, all the guilt of a year lived badly
Damien Comolli’s parable at Continassa was as rapid as it was irreversible in its downward trend. Announced at the beginning of June 2025, appointed plenipotentiary with the task given to him by Exor to redesign the company from scratch by cutting costs and guaranteeing sporting objectives, promoted to CEO in November. Then sidelined a few months later.
Comolli made a lot of mistakes, not only on the transfer market where he spent over 120 million euros without managing to bring a potential starter to Turin: David, Openda, Zhegrova, Joao Mario and Conceiçao (an operation already set up by Giuntoli) in the summer and then Boga in winter. He had to be the man of algorithms, bring a modern vision, project Juventus into the future with a young and international structure that depended entirely on him, the man to whom everything had to respond.
Even an arrogant approach in the first steps, gradually less and less tolerated at Continassa where his team was slowly establishing itself. In his end-of-year speech, delivered to try to convey the image of a manager ready to take a step aside, he admitted that not everything had gone smoothly and not just on the pitch. But he had also vindicated some of the choices made at the start of 2026, from the heavy renewals of Yildiz, Locatelli and McKennie to the very confirmation of Spalletti which had also been decided directly by Elkann. The direct line between the two had cut off the company manager. A contradiction that is no longer sustainable.
Who is Giovanni Carnevali, the other Marotta
Giovanni Carnevali, born in 1960, has been at the helm of Sassuolo since 2014, which is one of the best managed teams in the Italian football scene. Brotherly friend of Beppe Marotta, long considered an emerging manager and, however, never arrived at the moment of the leap in quality despite his name being cyclically associated with the major revolutions of the top clubs in Serie A. A career that began early in the minor categories and then continued through experiences with Monza, Pavia, Como and Ravenna before making the leap to the Mapei court.
He has a dense network of relationships at a sports policy level, present in the Lega Calcio Serie A of which he knows the deepest dynamics, inside the affairs of the FIGC and also manager and entrepreneur through the Master Group Sport with which he has been working for years on all the major events of our football. He can land at Juventus at the age of 66, no longer young but certainly mature as a manager. It is the exact opposite of Comolli’s suggestion.
