Juventus entering the great unknown with Andrea Pirlo

Juventus fired Maurizio Sarri after their embarrassing Champions League performance, and they have already picked his replacement.

Raise your hand if you saw this coming. Juventus firing Maurizio Sarri wasn’t that much of a surprise, because even though he won his first title as a manager, the Bianconeri were obvious Scudetto winners. And the reality is that if Lazio and Inter collapsed, they probably wouldn’t have won the title.

So Sarri shouldn’t get any extra praise for barely winning Serie A with Cristiano Ronaldo and Paulo Dybala in his side.

But if Juve were going to fire Sarri, fans expected a better, more proven manager to lead the way over a man who flopped miserably at Chelsea.

Instead of pursuing former Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino or even making an unlikely play at Real Madrid’s Zinedine Zidane, Juventus have hired their own former legend as a manager. Except Andrea Pirlo only received his coaching license last year and was supposed to be coaching the U23’s.

Yes, you read that right. According to Sky Italia’s ace reporter Fabrizio Romano, the Bianconeri have chosen Andrea Pirlo to be their manager for the 2020-2021 season.

And here we go indeed…

Andrea Pirlo will feel all the pressure as Juventus’ manager

Pirlo is the greatest regista to ever play and is a Serie A legend through and through. There are few midfielders of the last two decades who can say they could pick out a pass or control a game like Pirlo. Not even Real’s Toni Kroos can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him.

But that doesn’t mean Pirlo will be a great manager, least of all when he enters his first gig with one of Europe’s most ambitious and powerful clubs having zero experience. As in, zero at even the youth level or as an assistant.

His trial was supposed to be as the U23 manager, as he was appointed the youth team manager on July 30, not more than a week ago.

And now he’s going to be managing players like Ronaldo, Dybala, Matthijs de Ligt, and Leonardo Bonucci in the UEFA Champions League.

If you want to know what the great unknown looks like, then this is it. Juventus have eschewed pursuing a high-profile manager to hire a high-profile legend with no experience. He may turn out to be the next Zidane, sure, but even Zidane had experience before this role. Same with Mikel Arteta at Arsenal, as he put in work as Pep Guardiola’s illustrious assistant.

Pirlo isn’t someone you want to bet against. He’s a legend known for his brilliant footballing mind, and he can make this work. It’s important not to say he is a failure, and it is fair for the Juventini to be excited for what he can do.

But we cannot lie here. Juve are taking a major risk, and they are banking on a shake-up with a young, unproven coaching paying off. This has now become THE storyline in European football.