beIN SPORTS

By Adam Digby (@Adz77)

“Some you win and some you lose” goes the old adage, and the past few weeks for Juventus have seen that proven to be especially true. Starting the summer with a bang, the Italian giants reinforced an already competitive squad with the addition of AS Roma's Miralem Pjanić, but now must face the stark reality of Álvaro Morata's exit after his childhood club Real Madrid exercised their buy-back option on him.

While the departure of the Spanish striker is a severe blow, the Bosnian international is a versatile and supremely talented midfielder, whose transfer – as this previous column explains – will vastly alter the Serie A landscape. Providing Coach Max Allegri with a wealth of tactical options, signing Pjanić also weakens Juve's closest rivals immeasurably.

However, if seeing a player with Morata's potential walk away for just €30 million is undoubtedly harmful, that damage may be felt much less severely when the Bianconeri conclude their next piece of summer transfer business. Even before his departure from Barcelona was confirmed earlier this month, Dani Alves had long been linked with a move to Juve and the club have now confirmed those rumours.

“With Miralem Pjanic and Dani Alves we worked ahead on the market and started building the team for next season,” Director General Beppe Marotta told reporters on Tuesday. “The Brazilian will be in Turin starting from next week.” The club official was also quick to deny that current first-choice right-back Stephan Lichtsteiner was set to be sold, insisting that “the goal is to have two quality players for every role."

The Switzerland Captain – set to lead his nation in Euro 2016 action against Poland this weekend – has been linked with Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain, but will now face the first genuine challenge to his place in Juve's starting XI. Lichtsteiner has made 196 appearances for the Bianconeri, winning the Serie A title every season since he joined the club from Lazio back in 2011.

He is a reliable performer who has rarely turned in a bad performance, his ability to play as both a wing-back and an orthodox full-back essential as Allegri began to toggle between three and four-man defences. But that desire to provide the Coach with high calibre alternatives paid dividends on the opposite flank in 2015/16, Patrice Evra and Alex Sandro each bringing different qualities to the team.

That will now be mirrored by Alves and Lichtsteiner, the latter bringing the same veteran leadership and defensive solidity as his French team-mate, while the new man clearly approaches the game very differently. Constantly bombing beyond midfielders, he is regularly the furthest man forward even among Barcelona’s plethora of attacking stars.

Registering a remarkable 74 assists over the past seven seasons, his prowess in supplying width needs no explanations, taking up where former AS Roma and AC Milan icon Cafu left off. Yet he is a far better defender than his reputation suggests, rarely at fault when his side concede and averaging an impressive 3.1 tackles and 1.8 interceptions per game over that same period. He appears unperturbed by that view however, as he explained in a recent interview with Sid Lowe of The Guardian when asked about criticisms of his play when the ball is lost:

“What is ‘defend’ That no one ever dribbles or attacks? Bloody hell, football would be boring, wouldn’t it? You can prepare [only] to defend but then the guy dribbles past you anyway ... what, you think you’re the only one that’s quick? If you ‘defend’, you don’t attack; if you ‘attack’, you don’t defend? What’s football for? To win. And to win you have to score more. The winner isn’t [just] the team that defends incredibly; if you defend well but don’t score, it’s worthless.”

It is a mentality that has spurred him to great success, but after helping to deliver a staggering thirty trophies at Camp Nou, he – like Andrea Pirlo, Sami Khedira and indeed Evra – sees Juventus as the ideal place to challenge himself and test his abilities on a very different stage.

“At Juventus, winning isn’t important, it’s the only thing that matters" club legend Giampiero Boniperti once quipped. That message has become a motto for the Bianconeri, who head into next season not only in search of a record sixth-consecutive Serie A title, but also seeking to return to the European elite and mount a genuine Champions League challenge. 

Under both Max Allegri and predecessor Antonio Conte, Juventus have continued to grow. The past five title-winning seasons have seen them go through an entire campaign undefeated, record a new benchmark for most points in Serie A (102) and reach the Champions League Final. They were of course beaten in that clash with Barcelona, but have now brought in one of the Catalan club’s key players, a man who could make all the difference.

Another domestic triumph would see the Old Lady add to her already impressive record collection, but it is clear that the club has its sights set on greater glory. “We now look forward to the next campaign which will present new challenges,” Allegri told reporters at his end-of-season press conference, “namely the fight for a sixth straight Scudetto, retaining the Coppa Italia and performing well in the Champions League.”

Having won that competition three times and lifted the UEFA Cup (now Europa League) twice at previous club Sevilla, Alves will be expected to bring intimate knowledge of what it takes to do that, at a club who have not tasted continental glory in over two decades. Challenge accepted.