Will Max Allegri Quit Juventus?

Speculation about whether he’ll still be in Turin next season refuses to go away. It continues to rumble on, even though Allegri said at the weekend that there is “no truth” to rumours that he has given his word to Arsenal in case Arsene Wenger resigns at the end of the season.

It carries on, irrespective of Juve’s key decision-makers’ expressing their confidence that Allegri isn’t going anywhere. Asked Monday if the coach is 100 percent staying in Turin, general manager Beppe Marotta said, “I really think so. At the moment, there isn’t any compelling reason [to believe he won’t be]. We have a great relationship with him. We’re happy with him. He’s happy with us. There isn’t any problem.”

Why, then, does the story keep bubbling away?

Publicly at least, Allegri hasn’t come out and announced unequivocally that he will be at Juventus next season. He has been very coy, a bit of a tease. Allegri has said in the past that sooner or later, he would like to coach in England. He makes no secret of starting English lessons during his time at Cagliari, though he did recently reveal “I’ve given them up.”

You might recall that Allegri spent some time in London between the Milan and Juventus jobs in spring 2014. He was a strong candidate to become Tottenham manager before the board settled on Mauricio Pochettino. It’s clear that he would like to experience the Premier League in the future, just as Diego Simeone is adamant that “one day I’ll manage Inter,” but that isn’t to say it will happen this summer.

After his 100th game as Juventus manager in February, Allegri had no problem telling journalists: “I hope there are another 300 or 400.” Before last week’s Coppa Italia semifinal against Napoli, he made a joke about the media’s obsession with the level of his English.

“Honestly, I found learning Italian hard enough because I didn’t go to school all that often,” said Allegri, laughing. “What counts is I can now speak Torinese [the local dialect] quite well.”

Why hasn’t Allegri nipped this in the bud once and for all and put pen to paper on an extension?

For a start, he says repeatedly that it isn’t up to him; it’s in the club’s hands. But Juve’s mind is made up. They want to keep him. Above all, they don’t want a repeat of what happened with his predecessor, Antonio Conte. Conte committed to seeing out the final year of his contract without signing a new deal. He then quit in July just as preseason was starting and left Juventus with little time to react. Allegri has said he would never do that to the club.

Quizzed about his future a year ago, while the papers were linking him with the Chelsea job on an almost daily basis, Allegri let it be known that if he planned to leave, Juventus would be made aware of his intentions in March so they would have plenty of time to identify a successor. Those words are now being used against him, but Allegri isn’t troubled by them.

On one hand, it looks like he is playing a waiting game. He wants to see what opportunities present themselves. Last week, La Stampa claimed that Italy’s World Cup qualifier with Spain in October, played at the J Stadium, had been the setting for an approach by an intermediary who suggested to Allegri that when the time comes and Luis Enrique moves on from Barcelona, maybe they should have a chat.

Allegri isn’t among the favourites for that particular position, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t the best man for the job. Brilliant at managing superstars with big egos, Juve’s latest formation change, with five attackers on the pitch at the same time, is a style that would no doubt appeal to the Barça hierarchy even if their preference is for someone schooled by Cruyff, a former player willing and able to reassert the identity they seem to have lost.

It also hasn’t escaped people’s attention that this is Allegri’s third year at Juventus. The last Juventus manager to either make it this far — or be willing to continue into a fourth season — was Marcello Lippi, back in his first spell from 1994-99. It’s unusual for one man to stick around at this club for that length of time. More generally, today’s managers seem to put greater stock than ever in Bela Guttman’s three-year rule. The gist is that familiarity breeds contempt, players no longer believe they can learn anything new from the coach, they think they’ve heard it all before, and the message stops getting through.

Make no mistake: There have been tensions at Juventus this season. Allegri was overheard telling the club’s directors that he would like to kick all his players up the backside after they lost the Italian Super Cup. Paulo Dybala refused to shake his hand when substituted against Sassuolo, but the most high-profile incident of all was his argument with Leonardo Bonucci three weeks ago. Allegri used it, quite masterfully, to reassert his authority in the dressing room and show everyone who’s boss after smaller displays of dissent from Sami Khedira, Mario Mandzukic and Stephane Lichtsteiner.

Allegri has downplayed these incidents as things that happen at every football club, and Lippi recently recalled how his clashes with Fabrizio Ravanelli (and later, Christian Vieri) blew over. But is that the case here? Publicly, Allegri and Bonucci have said it’s all behind them. In fact, they’re better for it and would never allow it to get in the way of Juventus’ making history this season. But it remains to be seen if the peace is genuine or insincere and whether there are hard feelings or long-term damage.

Allegri says: “It’s not necessarily the case that after three years, you have to change.” He went into a fourth season with Milan, only to be sacked half-way through it, and while that experience might play on his mind when considering his future, the circumstances here are completely different. Milan were raging against the dying of the light and making big cuts in spending and wages.

Juventus, by contrast, keep showing ambition. They’re getting richer and richer and continue to invest in this team’s future. Allegri knows he’s onto a good thing. But it’s March, and other than saying he is happy at Juventus and still has 18 months on his contract, he hasn’t declared his intentions.

Of course, this year is different from last year. A year ago, Juventus were out of the Champions League. Allegri had fewer demands on his time and could meet the club to sort out his future. Right now, Juventus have one foot in the quarterfinals, and the treble is very much on. Frankly, there are more important things to worry about. Now is not the time to discuss his future.

“I’m not even thinking about it,” he said. Microphones on the sidelines at Juventus games often pick up Allegri bellowing at his players to be “patient,” and it looks like fans wishing to know what his plans are will have to be too.

“Max is a poker player,” Gennaro Gattuso, Allegri’s former player, told Sky Italia at the weekend. He keeps his cards close to his chest. Knows when to hold ’em. Knows when to fold ’em.