With just over a week until the start of Serie A, this SBOTOP observer has never been so confident as to the outcome of the title.
As far as I am concerned, there’s only one team in town and the ‘Old Lady’ of Turin is going to reclaim the crown with something to spare – a trophy relinquished to big-spending Inter Milan last term, despite defeating them twice (in the league and the cup).
The Serie A 2021 betting odds suggest the same and hey, we both can’t be wrong surely?!
Since manager Max Allegri departed the Juventus hot seat two summers ago, the club has still enjoyed success. But despite the 2020 title triumph and last season’s Coppa Italia victory, the experiments of Maurizio Sarri and Andrea Pirlo did not really work.
Indeed, Juventus have lost their mojo both in Serie A and the Champions League in recent times and now want to rediscover it with Allegri back at the helm.
Yet it will be his leader on the field who plays arguably the most key role of all.
Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus)
Ironic isn’t it that I am talking about a player who has not technically signed a new contract and is a free agent right now, although Allegri assures media conferences there’s no question the Italy international will be their captain in 2021-22, with Paulo Dybala as his understudy.
Alongside Leonardo Bonucci, the Juventus spine is emphatically good. The best in Europe in fact – fresh from the bedrock of Italy’s Euro 2020 success and now set to resume in Turin at club level.
Indeed, it will be two men at the age of 36 – Chiellini and Cristiano Ronaldo – who I expect to be the leaders on the field. Chiellini will lead from the front as Juventus wrestle the title back from Inter Milan.
Samir Handanovic (Inter Milan)
For any regular observers of Serie A, the 37-year-old Inter goalkeeper has continued to impress. In fact, for me he was as good as any shot-stopper in the competition, including the other keeper across the city in Milan’s Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Euro 2020 ‘Player of the Tournament’ Donnarumma has, of course, now left Serie A as a free agent and been swiftly snapped up by Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain.
Indeed, look at some other departures from Serie A and you can see why Handanovic has even more responsibility on his shoulders than normal.
For example, Achraf Hakimi is another big player to have left the city of Milan for PSG. The Nerazzurri may well have turned a tidy profit on the talented Moroccan after only a single season at the San Siro, but he is a loss.
Likewise, the pending departure of prolific frontman Romelu Lukaku robs Inter of their main marksman and someone who contributed so many individual Serie A 2021 highlights.
In the wake of the Nerazzurri’s first Scudetto in a decade, no wonder fans have been left up in arms by his pending departure with little assurances the majority of the vast transfer fees they are recouping this summer will be reinvested in the squad.
Whether more players follow him out of the San Siro exit door in the next few weeks remains to be seen but, as club captain, Handanovic has the task of trying to uphold morale and maintain momentum for the defending champions at what should have been the start of a glorious period for Inter.
Instead, it seems last season’s title triumph could be a flash in the pan.
Incidentally, the last man who gave Inter real hope is back in Serie A and Jose Mourinho has a job on his hands at Roma.
To achieve his aim, he will need his captain to be his eyes and ears on the pitch more than ever.
Step forward:
Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma)
Mourinho and Pellegrini could be a marriage made in heaven (or hell).
They certainly shared an injustice last weekend in an ill-tempered friendly with La Liga side Real Betis.
The Portuguese coach stormed onto the field to dispute the decision to send off one of his players and allow a Betis goal that was apparently scored with a hand.
Captain Pellegrini was sent off first and then it was Mourinho’s turn after he entered the field of play.
The Italian international’s contract expires next summer but his agent reportedly met last week to begin negotiations on a new contract with the Serie A giants with Roma’s project for the future convincing Pellegrini to extend his stay in the capital.
After being forced to miss Euro 2020 due to a left flexor strain, the recurrence of an injury sustained in May, Roma need the 25-year-old fit and well for the start of the new season as they look to capitalise on undoubted weakening of clubs around them such as Inter Milan, Napoli, Atalanta and Milan.
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