A new era is beginning in Turin, with Maurizio Sarri replacing the immensely successful Massimiliano Allegri in the Juventus hot seat. The 51 year-old guided the Old Lady to a ridiculous 11 pieces of silverware in a trophy laden five year spell at the Allianz Stadium, so his successor has huge boots to fill.
It's been some rise through the ranks for Sarri, who never had a playing career in the game, instead quitting his job as a banker to follow his dream of becoming a football manager.
It's taken some time but now at his 20th club, he's reached the pinnacle of Italian football which is a remarkable achievement.
But he won't have much time to take in his new surroundings and soak up his success as the Juventus supporters demand silverware. So he has a lot of work to do.
He has a star studded squad at his disposal along with some significant funds for transfers which has led to Juve expressing an interest in re-signing Manchester United's Paul Pogba who'd cost well over £100m along with soon-to-be PSG free agent Adrien Rabiot who's also been linked and he'd be a much cheaper option - although he'd command a significant salary.
During the last 5 years the Allegri era has resulted in plenty of success but there has been some criticism surrounding their playing style, with the Italian favouring a rigid, defensive minded 3/5 at the back system. Sarri on the other hand is the complete opposite.
He favours a possession based attacking game (SarriBall) which Chelsea fans know all too well from his time in West London last season. He's one of the most stubborn managers around which can be both good and a bad thing, with him a firm believer in his philosophy which when it works it can be very difficult to stop and extremely pleasing on the eye.
So Juve fans should expect to see their side line-up in a 4-3-3 the majority of the time from now on, which will be music to the ears of Cristiano Ronaldo. Juve have some excellent creative players and Sarri's style of football should result in plenty of goalscoring opportunities for him.
They have a number of players who should excel under him but one who Sarri absolutely adores is still on the books of former club Chelsea, in the form of Jorginho. The pair have worked together since 2015 and it's been a fruitful relationship, with them steering Napoli to their best ever Serie A points total along with guiding the Blues to the Europa League title and a return to the Champions League last season.
The 27 year-old is perhaps the player under threat most by Sarri's Stamford Bridge departure and he would've been devastated that he's moved on, especially with the news breaking on Father's Day. Sarri paid £57m to sign him from Napoli last summer and Jorginho's agent has recently spoken out, indicating that this love story could potentially be set for a third episode.
When speaking to Tuttomercatoweb, Joao Santos (Jorginho's agent) said:
“Chelsea have a four-year contract with the lad. We’ll wait a few days to figure out whether there is any truth in this interest mentioned in the papers.
“His past at Napoli won’t be an issue, because Jorginho is a professional. Right now, Jorginho is happy at Chelsea. He found a great atmosphere and we can’t really say that he’d like to go elsewhere, but anything can happen on the transfer market. We’ll wait and see…”
Juventus are in the market for another new midfielder despite signing Aaron Ramsey so this could deal could potentially have legs and it wouldn't go down well with his former club. Napoli fans are already absolutely livid that Sarri has joined Juve with them tearing down his plaque in the city, so imagine one of their former players doing the same.
With Chelsea in the midst of a transfer ban they certainly wouldn't be prepared to let him leave on the cheap but after splitting opinion in his first season, if they received a big offer perhaps we could see something get over the line.
Sarri & Jorginho III can't happen can it, surely?
