?Zinedine Zidane has played down rumours linking him with Maurizio Sarri’s job at Juventus, despite admitting that there are no guarantees over his Real Madrid future.
The Frenchman made history by becoming the first manager to win three successive Champions League crowns between 2016 and 2018 before taking a break from coaching, only to return to the Blancos dugout less than a year later.
His stock has risen exponentially in the wake of those successes, and while his current ?Madrid crop are not a scratch on his previous troupe, they still find themselves battling for ?La Liga this term. Fly 660 miles north east and you’ll find a bizarrely similar predicament occurring in Italy.
Sarri’s ?Juventus are nowhere near the quality of the previous ?Serie A winning sides, but still they too are in with a shout of winning the Scudetto this season. Nevertheless, Sarri isn’t best liked for his style of play over in Italy, and his position has been under threat this term. Zidane used to play there, didn’t he? Oh yeah, he did, so, naturally speculation has surfaced.
“No, no … no one has contacted me and I don’t know anything,” Zidane said of the links, via ?Goal.
“It’s not like that. Knowing what comes next doesn’t exist,” he added.
“I feel supported by the club, yes, that’s clear. The people that work here, we’re all pulling in the same direction. But after all that, I know how this works. I’m coach of Real Madrid today but tomorrow that could change.”
While hardly the rousing commitment and defiant defence of his role at the club, his honesty does offer a breath of fresh air. Football management is a cruel business and Zidane is fully aware of this. Especially at Madrid, where a poor string of results can easily be the end of someone’s tenure – no matter how successful they’ve been.
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