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Gigi Buffon was a guest on the podcast Viva el Futbol where he discussed various topics related to his future and the recent coaching changes at Juventus.

Read the full interview with Buffon

Buffon: “Tudor? Lack of Empathy with Management”

BUFFON’S FUTURE
“I would like to become responsible for the sports side of a club. Something outside of Juventus and the National Team? No, I don’t rule anything out because if I want to be a professional, I can’t limit myself. Unless it’s a choice that goes completely against my values and my past. If you want to be a professional and work, it’s right that you consider any commitment.”

CHOOSING TO STAY AFTER THE EURO
“I had doubts, which is normal after a disappointment. The team’s strength convinced me: we have players of great value. Then, in a moment of great confusion, we had the strength to show that we have the independence to make choices that may initially go against the tide or be seen in a negative light. This is the best way to play football, although it doesn’t mean that one always makes the best choices, but perhaps the right ones.”

BUFFON’S ROLE
“I’m not the typical team leader like Riva or Vialli, I have some additional responsibilities related to the field. In 30 years at certain levels, I have brought something useful for a club or a National Team.”

GATTUSO AS ITALY’S MANAGER
“A spontaneous and instinctive choice. When it seemed like Ranieri was going to come, he made evaluations – in my opinion – also right about his life, past, present, and future. And he didn’t feel like joining the project. Then there were four or five names. In certain names, beyond the name and the resume, if one has a certain sensitivity and understands the group he works with, then he understands that there are coaches more functional to a certain team. Not better or worse, but more functional. The president immediately liked this idea and I am convinced that it was the right choice. This doesn’t mean that all problems have been solved.”

THE MATCH WITH NORWAY
“I’m neither surprised nor happy: what I thought, I am seeing. Making small analyses, this is the result of that choice. The challenge with Norway, beyond the fact that it may mean little for the standings, means a lot in terms of having authority to go and get what we want in March.”

SPALLETTI’S DISMISSAL FROM THE NATIONAL TEAM
“The only thing that didn’t go well and in which the team didn’t perform well, in my opinion, was at the Euro. Up to that point, there had been good responses, even in the match with Ukraine. Probably there was something to review at the Euro, but he acknowledges this. Then we started with a new spirit and in my opinion, Spalletti had a very right year from all points of view. I think the epilogue was solely the result of misfortune in the schedule: the first match was like a final, where everything was at stake, against one of the most in-form teams in Europe. With five players who had just played in the Champions League final three days before, then with two-three absentees: you lose it in a disastrous way, but you really had very few weapons. Being so delicate and losing it that way, I think played a fundamental role.”

JUVENTUS
“It started well, I don’t know how convinced they were of the project. Seeing the choice made a few days ago (referring to Tudor’s dismissal), and the timing of when it was made, makes me think that there wasn’t all this conviction initially. Then you went to put on the best patch available, the choice of Spalletti can guarantee the Juventus fans a series of results they have been waiting for. I’m only sorry for one thing: I would have liked to see someone like him from the beginning of the season, with the preparation and the choice of some players. At that point, Juve could have been competitive until the end, then I don’t know if they would have won or not.”

KENAN YILDIZ, DUSAN VLAHOVIC, AND LOIS OPENDA (PHOTO BY SALVATORE FORNELLI)

TUDOR’S DISMISSAL
“It seems to me that there was some problem of empathy with the management, reading the newspapers it seems that this came out. Then the truth is known only by those inside, I’m talking about empathy with the executives. Seeing the last two-three interviews he did… I think of the one after Como: there, a journalist who hears this thing can’t help but ask the next question about it, but apparently they didn’t catch it. I thought: ‘If I were a journalist, I would thrive here’. Instead, they didn’t catch it.”

ALLEGRI
“Why did he have more trust at Juve? Probably because of the curriculum and the past he had provided certain guarantees of reaching the goal, even if minimal. Maybe for others, being less experienced, there was trust with some reluctance. I understood the choice of Tudor up to a certain point: if you choose him, it’s because you are convinced that it’s the right choice, right?”

JUVE’S NEW CYCLE
“In my opinion, it’s a period of difficulty because physiologically after a path of great victories for ten years, time is needed. You have to find the right people in management, the coach, and the players. We also experienced it between 2009 and 2011.”

FIORENTINA
“Pioli was, for me, the right choice they could make at the time. In Pioli’s journey, there has been an exponential growth between the first Pioli arriving at Fiorentina and this one. He was supposed to be the added value, I’m sorry he didn’t find the right tools to succeed. I’m here racking my brains trying to understand what went wrong.”