In the past European winter transfer window, the most exciting operation of the Juventus management is not to send away Kulusevsky, Ben Tankur and Ramsey, who have lost their positions in the team, although these operations to clean up the team lineup can already score full points, but there is no doubt that the signing of Fiorentina's new brother Vlahovic is more worthy of full recognition, and even Juventus star Buffon is excited when talking about this transfer, "The introduction of Vlahović is Juve's most beautiful, greatest, The most shocking signing". Vlahovic scored a goal in Juventus' debut to help the Bianconeri beat Verona 2-0 and return to the top four, further proving the success of the transfer. It can be said that the addition of the Serbian striker is enough to make Juve fans stop missing Ronaldo, and even the addition of Vlahović is more exciting to the fans of the Bianconeri than the addition of C Ronaldo that year. Juventus's continuous decline in recent years, is it really caused by C Ronaldo?
C Ronaldo's joining is the icing on the cake, and Vlahović's joining is a blessing in disguise
The main reason why Juventus spent more than 100 million euros to introduce the 33-year-old Ronaldo, who was still at the peak, was to reach the top of Europe and realize the dream of a generation of Zebra fans to win the Champions League. At that time, although Juventus could not reach the top in the Champions League, their strength has always been the top in Europe, in addition to the domestic league has achieved an unprecedented seven consecutive titles, in 2014/15 and 2016/17 seasons are twice in the Champions League finals, but unfortunately lost to the la Liga two Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively, and in these other seasons, they lost to Bayern Munich in the 2015/16 season, and had no choice but to stop in the round of sixteen. In the 2017/18 season, he was killed by Real Madrid on penalties and unfortunately missed the final four, but it was just a little bit of luck. Therefore, Juventus, represented by Chairman Agnelli, advocated the introduction of C Ronaldo, purely to use the attributes of C Ronaldo's Champions League king to help the team impact a higher level of stage, C Ronaldo for Juventus at that time, more of a finishing touch, icing on the cake.
Unlike Cristiano Ronaldo, Vlahović is also a center forward, but he came to the Allianz Stadium as a savior when Juventus was in a deep trough, which is undoubtedly a long drought for Juventus fans who have been suffering in the first half of the season, and it is no wonder that they will be more excited. For most of the season, Juventus was outside the Champions League, and even once ranked seventh in all teams, even the European seat was difficult to keep, when they were greatly reduced in offensive firepower because of the sudden departure of C Ronaldo, and the defense was unstable, not only to the strong Inter Milan and Atalanta, but also to verona, Sassuolo, Empoli and other middle and lower-tier teams, the state is worrying. Fortunately, after a long period of training by Allegri, Juventus has gradually found its form in the past two months, not only can it steadily collect three points in the face of weak teams, but also its performance has improved significantly in the face of strong teams, especially the defensive level, they can not only drag Inter Milan into the penalty shootout in the Italian Super Cup final, but also can force AC Milan to draw away, draw at home to Napoli, reverse Roma away, they only need to strengthen the attack, and then Vlahović came, The two sides are a match made in heaven to some extent, and it is impossible to say that they are not excited.
One hundred million to buy C Ronaldo gambled at the moment, it is better to introduce eighty million Vlahovich to have a future
From an hindsight perspective, Juventus' move to introduce Cristiano Ronaldo in the summer of 2018 was a gamble, and it was clearly a failed gamble, because they did not achieve what they wanted to achieve - the Champions League title, but instead suffered consecutive humiliating defeats in recent years, including being eliminated by Ajax in the quarter-finals of the 2018/19 season, losing to Lyon in the 2019/20 season to stop in the round of sixteen, losing to Porto in extra time in the 2020/21 season, and losing to Porto in 2020/21, and sixteen consecutive langs. Not only did it not make a breakthrough, but it has completely become the laughing stock of European football, which is lamentable. In the three years of Cristiano Ronaldo's time at Juventus, the only two classic games that can be remembered are the home hat-trick reversal of Atletico Madrid, and the second time Camp Nou helped the team win 3-0 against Barcelona to regain the first place in the group. And it is the three years of gambling, the existence of C Ronaldo made the team abandon the future star Keane Jr., sacked the most suitable meritorious coach Allegri, missed the future superstar including Haland, C Ronaldo is not wrong, and the team management's transfer decision this time is obviously wrong.
The obvious difference with Ronaldo joining the Bianconeri is that no matter from which point of view, Vlahovic clearly belongs to a correct transfer reinforcement. First of all, at the age level, when C Ronaldo joined, he was thirty-three years old, at the end of the peak stage, and Vlahovic is only twenty-two years old now, if the development goes well, Vlahović is entirely likely to become a future superstar of the same level as Mbappe and Haland, Juventus can not only rely on the Serbian to fight for the fourth or even the championship at this stage, but even solve the problem of the forward line for at least ten years in the future once and for all, after all, the promising little Kiesa is only 24 years old. These two forward pairs are enough to prop up Juventus back to the top. In summary, from the perspective of team building, Juventus buying Vlahovic is undoubtedly more cost-effective than buying C Ronaldo, and even from a competitive point of view, Vlahovic, who is 1.9 meters tall, may be more suitable for juventus than C Ronaldo. Taking 10,000 steps back, even if Vlahović finally did not meet the expectations of the outside world and was finally listed for sale by the Bianconeri, the transfer fee income brought to Juventus will definitely be higher than that of Ronaldo. In this comparison, it is also reasonable that Vlahović is more popular with fans than Ronaldo.
Why don't Juventus fans thank Cristiano Ronaldo? Is the current trough really caused by Ronaldo?
After Vlahović joined, even as early as the time when C Ronaldo just left the team, C Ronaldo lost a good reputation in Juventus's fan circle, and many people in addition to believing that C Ronaldo's departure caused harm to the team at the end of the transfer window, should also be responsible for Juventus' decline in recent years. This statement is obviously untenable, Ronaldo made 134 appearances during his time at Juventus, scoring 101 goals, helping the Bianconeri win two Serie A titles, one Coppa Italia, and two Italian Super Cups, and his contributions are among the best among his teammates in the same period, which can be seen from his winning Serie A best player and Serie A Golden Boot, if this also needs to be a back for the team's downturn, then Juventus' midfielders are almost committing crimes.
To be precise, it should be the juventus executives, including Agnelli and Nedved, who should be responsible for Juventus' poor performance in recent years, especially the poor results in the Champions League, including Agnelli, Nedved, etc., not to mention the arrival of C Ronaldo, after the arrival of C Ronaldo, the top management first fired Allegri for no reason, and then invited Sarri and Pirlo, who were obviously inferior to Alegri, for two consecutive years, among them, let Pirlo, a rookie coach, coach a big club with Champions League dreams, is simply an outrageous operation. In terms of player transfers, the top level is even more disappointing, sending away the high school striker Mandzukizi with C Ronaldo with tacit understanding, sending away Emre Can, who is hard enough in midfield, and successively bringing in Artur, Ramsey, Kulusevski and Rabiot are all high-paid and low-energy, unable to play real strength on all fronts. With the support of such a weak midfield combination, Cristiano Ronaldo was still able to score 101 goals in three years, and dragged the team into the European zone as a Golden Boot in the final year.
Time can't start again, and it's time for Juventus to forget Ronaldo and look to the future
If, in the summer of the 2018/19 season, Juventus did not let Allegri off, Mandzukic did not leave, and Haaland did not miss Juventus, would Juventus reach a higher altitude than it is today? No one knows that for Juventus, the most important thing to do at present is to completely forget the past, let C Ronaldo and everything he has become a part of the glory of history, and instead create a new future with Flahović, Little Kiesza and so on! Bless Ronaldo bless Juventus!