The cracks are showing in Turin, and not just in the crumbling plaster of an ageing stadium. Juventus have reportedly decided to fine both Dusan Vlaho...
The cracks are showing in Turin, and not just in the crumbling plaster of an ageing stadium. Juventus have reportedly decided to fine both Dusan Vlahovic and Manuel Locatelli following their very public on. pitch bust. up during that dismal 2. 0 defeat to Fiorentina. And frankly, it was a row that felt less like a spontaneous flash of temper and more like the culmination of weeks of pressing frustration inside a squad that has forgotten how to play with any real coherence. You don't fine two senior professionals for a bit of handbags unless the club believes the incident was symptomatic of a deeper rot. And they're not wrong.Let's be honest for a moment. That performance at the Stadio Franchi was an indictment. The side looked static, devoid of the kind of movement that creates space against a low block. Vlahovic, isolated up front and feeding off scraps, cut a lonely figure. Locatelli, tasked with being the metronome in midfield, looked like a man trying to conduct an orchestra that had forgotten the tune. So when the Serbian striker gesticulated wildly at his teammate for a misplaced pass that broke a rare promising move, was it a surprise Not to anyone who has watched this team stumble through recent weeks. It was ugly, it was unprofessional, and it was the kind of incident that gets splashed across the back pages. But the fines, as confirmed by sources at GoalZaza, suggest the club is more concerned about the message than the money.And what is that message It's that the blame game cannot become the default setting. You cannot have a striker pointing fingers at the man trying to feed him, nor can you have a midfielder shrugging off responsibility when the ball goes astray. This is Juventus, a club built on the idea of collective resilience. They have had some stinkers this season, real squeaky bum time stuff in games they should have won easily, but this felt different. This felt personal. The managers, whoever they are at this point, need to get a grip on the dressing room before the season completely unravels. They need tactical flexibility, yes, but they also need a squad that does not implode the moment things get sticky. Fining the pair is a start, but it is a plaster on a much deeper wound.The irony, of course, is that Vlahovic was brought to Turin to be the clinical finishing point of a revival. Locatelli was supposed to be the cultured Italian midfielder who could dictate transitional play. Now they are sharing a fine while the rest of the league looks on and smirks. The real work begins now: rebuilding the trust that was so publicly shattered on that Florentine pitch. If they cannot find a way to coexist effectively, then the board might just decide that selling one of them is the easier solution. That is the cold reality at a club that has historically had little patience for dressing room noise.
