Report: Juventus have contacted Maurizio Sarri about replacing Max Allegri

At the start of the week, rumors as to who Juventus’ next manager might be was dependent on the very large elephant in the room — Max Allegri’s future. On Friday afternoon, that elephant left the Allianz Stadium-sized circus tent, with Juventus confirming via its official website that Allegri will not be the club’s manager at the conclusion of the 2018-19 season.

That, of course, has caused the speculation as to who will succeed Allegri into overdrive.

And leave it to another Italian who is probably going to be searching for a new job this summer to be linked to Juventus’ soon-to-be vacant managerial position.

According to Alfredo Pedulla, a man who has gotten a thing or two right about Chelsea’s Italian-leaning dealings over the last 12 months, Maurizio Sarri is quickly emerging as one of Juventus’ top candidates to replace Allegri. Pedulla, dubbed “The Oracle of Sarri by our friends over at We Ain’t Got No History, says that there’s a “over a 70 percent chance” that Sarri leaves Chelsea this summer no matter what happens in the Europa League final.

While Sarri may be of interest of Roma, Pedulla says, it’s Juventus that has the inside track.

For what it’s worth, Tuttosport’s Allegri-centric cover on Saturday morning also has Sarri as one of the leading candidates to become Juventus’ next manager. (There’s also Lazio’s Simone Inzaghi and France manager Didier Deschamps — who was already being linked to the job before Friday’s announcement — on the cover, but that’s probably going to get lost in the shuffle here.)

Other less-than-reliable Italian outlets — they will go nameless for now, but you can probably guess who they work for or who they are — have also linked Sarri to the Juventus job. That has caused, rightly or wrongly, Sarri to emerge as the betting favorite to replace Allegri this summer. How much of the fact that he will be the latest casualty in the revolving door that is the Chelsea managerial position has something to do with it, I don’t know. But to see Sarri, who was so vocal about Juventus during Napoli’s Scudetto push last season suddenly be the man on the Allianz Stadium sidelines in the Juve technical area 19 times a season against Serie A opposition just seems ... odd.

It doesn’t really matter what kind of odds Pedulla gives when it comes to Sarri leaving Chelsea or what the odds makers say, honestly. Sarri as Juventus manager just doesn’t exactly seem like the kind of move Andrea Agnelli could make after agreeing to part ways with the guy who has won the club he presides over a whopping 11 trophies the last five years.