Report: There’s a growing number of Juve players who aren’t Max Allegri fans

Juventus players and coaches alike have made their way back to Turin and have headed into ritiro ahead of the weekend Derby della Mole against Torino. The ritiro, in most cases, is a last-ditch effort to try and salvage something during some of the most difficult of times.

But when it comes to Juventus’ current situation, there’s plenty of doubt as to just how effective trying to shut out everything from the outside world will end up being.

Why? Because the vibe around the squad and the relationship between the manager and a growing number of its players is ... well, not good.

According to La Repubblica earlier this week, there is a group of the Juventus locker room that is not happy with how Max Allegri is currently managing the squad. While there are veteran players like Wojciech Szczesny, Juan Cuadrado and others (translate: Mattia De Sciglio) who are very much in Allegri’s corner, the same can’t be said for the younger — and newer — section of the roster who are reportedly struggling to understand the method to the madness of Juve’s manager. That reported list includes Bremer, Filip Kostic, Manuel Locatelli and Weston McKennie, with Federico Chiesa and Fabio Miretti not exactly thought of as huge fans of Allegri.

It goes a step further than that, too. On Thursday, Goal Italia’s Romeo Agresti reported that some unnamed Juventus players “disagreed” with the club’s choice to go into ritiro ahead of the Turin derby.

Well, this is the part of the story in which we wonder if those names that La Repubblica has thrown out there on either side of the Allegri debate are just the beginning of things or telling of the whole story. You can understand why those more experienced players are more on the side of Allegri, while other players who have arrived at Juventus within the period of time as Allegri 2.0 aren’t exactly thinking the same kind of thing.

But, no matter who is falling into which group, the ultimate problem here is that Juventus’ locker room might not be all on the same page as some players want to make it out to be. As much as they’re preaching unity right now, it’s hard to stay unified when some folks are backing the manager and others are very much not fans of his. It’s hard to stay united when one group of players are thinking one thing and there’s another who don’t believe or aren’t buying much of what the manager is trying to tell them.

Of course, we’re far from being inside of the Juventus bubble and don’t even come close to knowing about the inner dynamics of the locker room, but it’s never a good thing when these types of stories come out. Just go back to when Maurizio Sarri was manager for his one and only season in Turin to remember just how long he remained in charge after stories about his losing of the locker room came to light.

Allegri’s situation is different in the sense that he’s making a whole lot more money than Sarri was and has the backing of the most important dude in the room, Andrea Agnelli. But you know full well that these kinds of stories are going to be more and more of a thing if Juventus’ struggles continue heading into the World Cup break.