Massimiliano Allegri is to leave Juventus, the Serie A club confirmed on Friday.
The Italian manager, who has overseen five successive Serie A titles and won four straight Coppa Italia trophies, won’t be on the bench for the 2019/2020, Juventus said in a brief statement, meaning that the 51-year-old will not see out the final year of his contract.
Juventus still has two games to play, with the Turin club facing Atalanta at home on Sunday, before Allegri’s reign ends at Sampdoria. However, the Italian is due to speak to the media tomorrow, alongside club president Andrea Agnelli.
Despite dominating the country’s domestic scene since replacing Antonio Conte as the club’s coach in 2014, Allegri leaves having failed to bring Champions League glory to the club.
His Juventus side was beaten in the final by Barcelona in 2015 and by Real Madrid in 2017. After signing Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid in the summer of 2018, this season was viewed as Allegri’s greatest opportunity.
However, the Italian giant was soundly beaten in the competition’s quarter-final by Ajax.
The pair of runner-up medals – following a 3-1 reversal against a Lionel Messi-inspired Barcelona and a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Ronaldo, who would join forces with Allegri a year later – would ultimately leave the slightest unfulfilled sense to his time with the 35-time champion.
READ: Ada Hegerberg: Why ‘shaking things up’ is more important than playing at Women’s World Cup
READ: Manchester City referred to UEFA body after financial fair play investigation
It is, perhaps, the sole blemish to Allegri’s record; 11 trophies in five years represents an extraordinary haul. He joined the club shortly after leaving AC Milan, with whom he also won Italian football’s top flight in 2011.
As a result of his work, he has long been linked with a move to the Premier League, with vacancies at both Chelsea and Manchester United mentioned in times gone by.
An overall win percentage of 71% – with 191 victories in just 269 games – highlights the sheer dominance asserted by his forces on Italian football. Indeed, in five seasons in Turin, he has lost just 19 games in Serie A.
His time with Ronaldo has seen that superiority continue, with Juventus 13 points clear of second-placed Napoli with just two league games to go.
There has, however, been occasional criticism – not least during this year’s fruitless Champions League campaign – that Allegri’s men had become over-reliant on the Portuguese star.
His hat-trick had clinched an improbably victory in the competition’s last-16, but with his powers neutralized by Ajax’s own quality in the subsequent tie, Juventus resembled a side shorn of ideas.
