Juventus contacted Conte before Napoli match, Pini claims

Time to hear this news from Francesco Pini —and it’s quite astonishing— about the Juve coaching position.

First, let me remind you that, uh, this is a very important rumor and I stress, a rumor, because there are many people on the web who enjoy, uh, in the hours or days afterward, cutting out just part of a statement that I might make right now and then changing it however they want,

perhaps with the classic quotation, which is what I actually report, altered, things that, among other things, have happened before.

So I’ll explain it as if we were in elementary school so that everyone can understand the point of the matter.

In the—yesterday and the day before, I was on the phone with a— with a character, uh, a hyperactive figure in the current world of football, uh, uh, who works in the world of football, I won't specify in what capacity, um, who told me something very serious,

something that had never happened before in this kind of Juventus.

That is, he tells me with certainty that Juventus, before the Napoli match, presumably after the Lazio match, though it's unclear whether it was after the Genoa match, definitely before the Napoli match, so perhaps last week,

because he wasn't very precise about that, according to him, Juventus would have personally contacted Antonio Conte and his entourage to find out the coach's immediate availability.

As for what then came back, uh, as a response from Antonio Conte to Juventus, who called him, which in this case is a name I won't mention, uh, we don't know.

Well, we know for certain that he was contacted, that Juve asked for information and so that's the news.

I mean, Juve, for the first time, Juventus under Carnevali, Massara, or Elkann is considering the possibility of opening the door again to Antonio Conte by contacting him at a time when, among other things, Juventus's win over Napoli, let's say,

has dispelled some of the ghosts. Well, it was useful, uh, very important.

Useful right away, though. The club's intention, from what I've been told, was specifically to contact him to find out if he was available immediately, so, not in June.

But do we know Conte's reaction? His reaction… I tried to verify this, this source.

The source says that he would prefer to wait until June out of fear or because of a—of a matter of not, of not preferring um, according to his footballing beliefs, to take over a team mid-season.

Well, that's understandable. Then there are other sources who got in touch with me after this phone call, which I verified, who tell me about another contact that also took place, so this was confirmed to me by a second party as well,

um, but they tell me that actually he would be available right away.

I don't know about that. I don't know what Conte replied, I repeat, I don't know what Conte said to anyone in Juventus management in this contact that definitely took place between the Turin club and Antonio, who is at home right now.

A few days ago, he was on vacation. But he lives in Turin now with his family.

So I'll make this clear for the umpteenth time before the usual quote comes out tomorrow "Pini says Conte to Juve." That's not the headline, The headline, and the news, is that Juventus did contact Conte anyway before the match against Napoli.