Details behind Igor Tudor’s bad relationship with Damien Comolli before Juventus sack.
The sacking of Igor Tudor by Juventus was the result of far more than just bad results on the pitch.
According to a detailed report from Tuttosport, his relationship with Juventus general manager Damien Comolli had been strained from the start, compounded by poor public communication and a final, furious dressing room confrontation.
The primary issue stemmed from a broken working relationship with Comolli, who, having been installed after Tudor was already in the job, had essentially “suffered” the Croatian’s presence. The relationship first soured right before the Club World Cup, when Tudor reportedly “put his foot down,” demanding a contract extension for the following season before traveling to the USA. Lacking a viable alternative, Comolli reluctantly agreed. Crucially, Comolli never granted Tudor real power over the market.
Tuttosport notes that Tudor had little weight in transfer decisions, which were all ultimately made by the general manager. The few subsequent confrontations between the two were described as “infrequent and not serene,” making Tudor’s dismissal inevitable once results failed.
Another major factor was Tudor’s poor communication in press conferences, which “irritated Comolli and perplexed the other executives.” The report highlights a harsh outburst against referees following the match against Verona, and a pre-match conference before the Como game where he effectively criticized the club’s market operations. These public exposures of internal friction proved costly, with the coach — who appeared to be anticipating his own sacking — seemingly using the press conferences to get “some stones off his chest.”
The final precursor was the “very heated confrontation” with the players in the dressing room at the Stadio Olimpico following the Lazio defeat, where Tudor harshly accused the squad. The players themselves reportedly understood then that Tudor’s time was over, paving the way for his official dismissal this afternoon.