Former Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci revealed what went on between him and then-manager Max Allegri which led to the infamous Porto-stool incident.
Both men had two different spells at the club, but they were often at odds with one another, especially during their original stints.
In February 2017, the duo were embroiled in a physical altercation during a Serie A contest against Palermo which preceded the Champions League round of 16 clash against Porto.
Bonucci has finally unveiled the details behind the ugly row. He claims it all began with an innocent gesture on his part, urging the manager to replace his teammate Claudio Marchisio who was struggling following his return from a long injury layoff, but the situation escalated quickly.
“Against Palermo, Marchisio came back from the cruciate ligament and at the hour mark, he was done,” explained Bonucci in his interview with PrimeVideoSportIT’s YouTube channel via (Calciomercato).
“I say to him ‘Claudio, you need to leave the pitch’, but he didn’t want to. So I signal to Allegri: ‘Change number 8 because he’s dead’. After 5 minutes he changed Sturaro with Rincon and I gestured to him. So he told me to f*** off and ‘focus on being a player’, he also told me ‘you’re an a**hole’, something like that, there are videos that show it.
“At the end of the match, I come back to the lockers, I find [Allegri’s assistant] Landucci trying to stop me and I slam him against the door and I ran into the dressing room. We attacked each other until they separated us. Then I went to him and told him ‘You didn’t understand what I meant’. He was fuming again, so they took me back out and that was it.
“He wanted me out of the squad permanently, but then the management mediated. I skipped Porto and then I started playing again but by then something had broken. In an attempt at mediation – they tell me I’m important and the coach’s contract is expiring.”
The retired defender was also displeased with how the management failed to deny the reports that claimed he caused problems in the locker room at half-time in the Champions League final in 2017.
“But before the Cardiff final, they renewed Allegri’s contract, which was also fair, for goodness sake. Then it comes out that I made a mess in the dressing room in Cardiff and I call the director [Marotta] and tell him: ‘I’m an asset to the club, don’t you think it’s time to deny it since nothing happened?” and he tells me: ‘We don’t have to say anything.’
“None of what was written about the locker-room debacle was true. There was no fuss. I went to Paulo and told him ‘We need you to be Dybala, you are important to us. Forget what happened and keep playing’. I have a great relationship with Paulo.”
Bonucci also claimed he later found out Allegri and his staff were looking to get rid of him upon their arrival at the club in 2014, as they perceived him as an error-prone defender.
“For what I represented for Juventus and what Allegri did in the first 5 seasons, it was a missed opportunity not to have shared the whole journey. I am among those who played the most during his time at the clubs.
“Circumstances did not allow us to always get along. One of his collaborators told me ‘When we arrived at Juve our thought was to get rid of you. When we prepared the matches we focused on you because you made mistakes.’”
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