During his time as Juventus’ manager, Luciano Spalletti’s pre-match press conferences have been rather informative and entertaining. That is no surprise if you’ve followed Spalletti throughout his managerial career considering he’s always been one of the more reflective and thoughtful coaches in Serie A, giving you the kind of answers that certainly reflect Spalletti’s approach to the game.
Something Spalletti has been consistently asked about in recent weeks has been the status of his expected contract
extension with Juventus, one that has been reportedly close to being finalized for more than a couple of weeks now.
Naturally, that topic came up again during Saturday’s pre-match press conference — with Juve playing on Monday and Sunday being Easter, things were pushed up a day — and Spalletti sounded a little perturbed to have to talk about it once again.
“I can’t understand why you’re so concerned about this,” the 67-year-old Spalletti said. “From our perspective, our relationships, everything is fine, everything is in order. Priority must be given to the match against Genoa. There will be an opportunity in the next few days; things happen, and it can’t be done in an hour, even if you want to. It’s something that has to come naturally. Not planning the match against Genoa properly is unnatural.”
There will be plenty of people who think he is deflecting any talk about his contract extension because they think it’s still tied to Juventus’ Champions League qualification. Others, meanwhile, will pretty much fall in line with Spalletti’s thinking of wanting to talk about the present rather than worrying about the future — especially when you consider just how delicate of a situation the current Champions League qualification chances are for Juventus with eight games to go in the 2025-26 season.
Either way, Spalletti doesn’t sound like somebody who wants to keep talking about or even being asked about it despite there being some in the Italian media who thought he could very well have signed his new deal during the recently completed international break.
That, obviously, never happened, with Juventus and Spalletti’s representation still trying to hammer out final details on the contract that is likely to be a 1+1 deal that sees him have an option for the 2027-28 season. Pretty much all reputable sources in Italy still expect a deal to get done, so it’s not like Spalletti not wanting to talk about his contract status is a sign that things are suddenly changing and Juve will be on the hunt for a new manager this summer after weeks of assuming a contract will be signed.
It still feels like only a matter of time before Spalletti does sign his new deal. It just feels like something he is in no mood to talk about because he wants all of the focus to be about what his team needs to achieve on the field.
