The first time I noticed the big change in Beppe Marotta was during the press conference to introduce Carlos Tevez in the summer of 2013. Back then Juventus’ executive director was mainly known for signing players on free transfers or for making offers of loans with option to buy, also, most of the credit for the bianconeri’s turnaround was given to manager Conte who had been picked by the team’s owner Andrea Agnelli.
 

But while he introduced Carlos Tevez to the Italian media, you could see the beginning of Marotta’s transformation from the meek and humble Walter White to becoming Heisenberg- the one who knocks. If you aren’t a fan of Breaking Bad, just imagine seeing one of your nerdiest middle school teachers become a bad ass criminal in the span of a few months. 

 

During that Tevez press conference, Marotta was asked about Jovetic, who at the time played for rival Fiorentina, his answer was so out of character for the Marotta we knew back then- “we’ll see if they’ll consider a loan with option to buy” (shortly after Jovetic was sold to Manchester City for 30 million euros)- since then Marotta has shown much more confidence and boldness both in his actions on transfer market and statements to the media.While he didn’t land Jovetic, Marotta’s transformation had begun- and as a result he has gone from loans with options to buy and free transfers to signing some of his rivals’ best players for exorbitant exit clauses. The changes at Juventus are so obvious that Inter and Napoli had to enter essentially “anti Juve” clauses in Icardi and Hysaj’s new contracts- both players have very high exit clauses (110 million for Icardi and 50 for Hysaj) that are valid only for clubs outside of Italy.  

While Marotta wasn’t able to build an empire almost over night like Walter White did in Breaking Bad, he has worked wonders along with sporting director Paratici and president Agnelli to make Juventus into one of the top teams in Europe. The bianconeri were very cautious financially at the beginning of Marotta’s reign, and after stringing many good decisions in a row they were able spend big on players like Dybala, Alex Sandro, Pjanic and Higuain. Juventus’ financial improvements can be seen in their official statements (they will likely be first Serie A club to break the 400 million euro a year revenue barrier in 2017) and also just by looking at their attack- they went from having players like Vucinic, Matri and Quagliarella to Higuain, Dybala, Pjaca and Mandzukic.

 

Marotta and sporting director Fabio Paratici’s partnership has worked even better than Walter White and Jesse Pinkman’s efforts to control the drug trade in Albuquerque. Paratici is a great scout who has a knack for finding players set to explode (Conte barely knew who Vidal was when Juventus signed him) while Marotta has a knack for signing these players under terms that will really benefit Juventus’ bottom line. Marotta’s background prior to joining Juventus was rather humble, he’s definitely much more like Walter White than former Juventus executive director Luciano Moggi who certainly was (and still is) a real life Heisenberg. While Moggi arrived at Juventus after a very successful stint at Napoli (he oversaw the club during most of the Maradona years), Marotta had worked for mid to lower table teams like Atalanta and Sampdoria, a club he left after bringing them to the preliminary round of the Champions League.    

While Marotta and Moggi do have some similarities in the sense that they almost always financed purchases with players’ sales, they operated in a vastly different Serie A- in addition the Juventus Moggi joined was much further ahead than the one Marotta inherited from Secco. I’m not taking away anything from Moggi who built some of the best Juventus I ever saw (he famously sold Zidane to finance the purchases of Buffon, Thuram and Nedved) but it’s much harder to bring top name players to Serie A these days- in order to do so Marotta had to take a gradual approach.


 

Some of Marotta’s best early moves (Vidal, Barzagli, Lichtsteiner, Bonucci) were completed for less than 45 million euro; these players complemented the signing of Pirlo on a free transfer. Marotta and Paratici’s new signings formed the core of Conte’s early Juve along with holdovers of the Secco regime like Chiellini, Marchisio and Buffon. This team’s early success allowed Juventus to become a bit more ambitious and sign the likes of Tevez and Llorente a few years later.

After Conte abruptly left, Juventus appointed Max Allegri who arrived in Turin with as much scepticism as Sammy Hagar replacing David Lee Roth on Van Halen. But Milan’s former new coach has fit in perfectly at Juventus, he has certainly improved their mentality In the Champions League- and the bianconeri’s recent improvements in Europe have certainly allowed them to attract better players.  

After a great run in the Champions League that brought them all the way to the final against Barcelona, Juventus had considerably higher revenues and had become a “destination” club (previously president Agnelli had stated Serie A was essentially a transition league). In summer of 2015 Marotta signed Khedira on a free transfer, as well as Dybala and Alex Sandro who all had offers from the Premier League- he also acquired Mandzukic to help compensate for Tevez’ loss.

Marotta took things a step forward this summer by signing Dani Alves (who rescinded his contract with Barcelona to join Juventus), Pjaca who picked Juventus despite the lack of playing time he would have been guaranteed elsewhere, and Benatia who arrived in a trademark Marotta loan with option to buy deal that allowed Juventus to spread his transfer fee over multiple fiscal years.  

But the transfer window of 2016 in Italy will be mainly remembered for the other moves Marotta pulled off. He quickly took advantage of Pjanic’s exit clause to bring in Pogba’s replacement before the French midfielder was sold (Pjanic wanted to join Juve so much that he forfeited the part of the exit clause he was due), he gave Higuain a medical in Madrid before paying Napoli his exorbitant exit clause and then finally sold Pogba back to Manchester United for a record breaking transfer fee after signing him for essentially free 4 summers earlier.


 

Once Marchisio returns from his injury, you can make a great case this is the best Juventus since Calciopoli. The defence is incredibly deep (Benatia and Rugani would start for every other Serie A team), Allegri has 5 starting calibre wingbacks (Cuadrado, Alex Sandro, Evra, Dani Alves and Lichtsteiner) and the attack is loaded with Higuain, Dybala, Mandzukic and Pjaca. While the midfield is weaker than Conte’s second season at Juve since there was vintage Vidal, an electric Pogba and Pirlo had still gas left in the tank, there is still plenty of quality with Khedira, Pjanic, Marchisio who will almost certainly be joined by Witsel at some point in 2017.  

But the growth at Juventus can not only be seen by their current squad but also by the actions of rival clubs in Italy. Inter and Napoli were forced to negotiate massive exit clauses in Icardi and Hysaj’s contracts to ensure Marotta would not repeat the Higuain and Pjanic deals- his transformation from Walt White to Heisenberg is now complete- now he just needs a Gus Fring in Serie A so he can have a worthy rival…


David Amoyal


David Amoyal is the manager of the English page on Gianluca Di Marzio's website where he also writes weekly articles. David covers transfer news for ESPN, and has appeared on numerous radio shows on Sirius XM in the US as well as TalkSport in the UK. David is the former editor in chief of Vavel USA and his articles have been featured in many sites around the world. You can follow him on Twitter @DavidAmoyal