If Lloyd Kelly thought that things can get spicy at St James’ Park during a rough period, he has walked into something of a soap opera at Juventus.
Kelly has taken time to adjust to life in Serie A with Juventus under fire on the Italian football scene. Kelly will be sold officially the moment that Juve qualify for Europe but he has already watched on as the head coach he agreed to work for was sacked.
Igor Tudor replaced Thiago Motta as head coach at the end of last month with Kelly caught up in the middle of some intense political battles. Sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli now comes under serious scrutiny and has been blamed for Kelly’s signing by some journalists in Italy.
Juve are struggling for transfer funds going into the summer but have no choice to pay up £20m for Kelly once they make it into any of the three UEFA competitions for 2025/26. But the drama continued this week when Motta went public on his sacking, his relationship with his players and rapport with Giuntoli.
Motta, quoted in La Gazzetta dello Sport, said: “The project didn’t go as we wanted. With Giuntoli there were no arguments and I had an excellent relationship with all my players.
“I don’t agree when I hear people talking about failure: our work was interrupted when we were one point away from fourth place in the standings, which was, at the start of the season, the priority objective”.
Motta then snapped when asked if the dressing room had turned against him and responded: “Whoever says that is a liar. At Juve I had an excellent relationship with all my players.
“I had to listen to a period of technical criticisms, always to be taken into account, but not personal attacks. And I never had an argument with the director, never. These are lies that I do not intend to let pass”.
