Thiago Motta breaks silence after Juventus sacking: ‘I don’t accept personal attacks, I’d change many things’

Thiago Motta admitted that he would change ‘many things,’ but argued that he was sacked by Juventus when his team was just one point away from what the club had considered their ‘priority target’ at the start of the season.

Speaking in a lengthy interview with Il Corriere della Sera less than two weeks after his Bianconeri dismissal, Motta lamented that he received ‘unacceptable’ ‘personal attacks’ questioning his relationship with the players.

Instead, he remarked that he had an ‘excellent’ relationship with everyone in the locker room, insisting that it is unfair to call his time at the club a ‘failure’.

“It’s difficult to analyse, being so close to what happened,” Thiago Motta said when asked why his experience at the Allianz Stadium ended prematurely.

I’m certainly disappointed because it didn’t go as we hoped, especially in the Coppa Italia and Champions League. However, I don’t agree when I hear talk of failure: our work was interrupted when we were just one point off fourth place in the standings, which was, at the beginning of the season, the primary goal.

“When I accepted this role with great enthusiasm, I knew it would be a three-year project, based on a profound revolution of the team and its radical rejuvenation.

“I know very well that at clubs of Juventus’ level, you have to win. Especially after years in which this hasn’t happened. The project didn’t go the way we wanted or imagined.”

Motta: ‘Anyone who says I had Juventus players against me is a liar’
The Bianconeri’s decision to replace Motta with Igor Tudor during the international break somehow clashed with the club’s public statements, but the former Bologna boss accepts that ‘winning is imperative’ for the Old Lady, as he paid the price for his side’s two consecutive heavy defeats against Atalanta and Fiorentina.

“Publicly, they expressed their trust and the indication to continue with the project,” he continued.

“These were important signals, which ultimately give you peace of mind and motivation to keep working. We always believed we would continue to push to finish the season by securing fourth place and qualifying for the Champions League.

“But I know football, and I know things can end the way they did because at a big club like Juventus, winning is imperative, and especially in the last two matches, we didn’t perform well, and they legitimately chose another path.”

While Motta admits there are definitely things that he ‘would change’, he believes it’d be a mistake to throw away all the work they have done.