Milan (AFP) – A record sixth Serie A title and an improved Champions League campaign will be Juventus’s primary objectives for next season but Massimiliano Allegri said the champions must first secure a second consecutive domestic double.
Juventus failed to repeat their 2015 feat of reaching the Champions League final after crashing out of the competition at the last 16 stage to Bayern Munich two months ago.
But despite aims to improve next season, Allegri — who on Friday signed a new two-year deal with the club that has made him Serie A’s highest-earning coach on 5m euros a year — indicated their number one aim is a record sixth successive scudetto.
“Our primary aim for next season, outwith having a great Champions League campaign, will be to secure a sixth (consecutive) league title. It has never been done, so we’ll be looking to make history,” Allegri said Saturday.
Juventus, who equalled their 1935 feat of a fifth successive crown two weeks ago, are away to Verona on Sunday when veteran striker Luca Toni will play his final game for the hosts.
The Turin giants are expected to stretch their unbeaten run to 27 games and, in spite of relegated Verona’s ongoing woes, Allegri insists his team won’t take their foot off the gas as they target a second successive league and Cup double.
“We want to finish the season in the best way possible, against a Verona side that will be looking to take the bitterness out of their own season, so that we can prepare as well as possible for the Cup final,” he said.
Juve face AC Milan, who sacked Allegri in January 2014, in Rome on May 21 and he believes the struggling Serie A giants will be a formidable opponent as they try to win the Cup and secure what is probably their last chance of Europa League qualification.
“I expect an angry Milan side, they’ll be out to win to secure entry to the Europa League,” he added.
Toni, meanwhile, said the emotions are starting to flow as he approaches his final game.
The 2006 World Cup winner has scored a total of 156 Serie A goals for eight different clubs throughout a storied career that also saw him star for Bayern Munich and become the Bundesliga’s top scorer in the 2007-2008 season.
Last season Toni, at 38 years old, became the oldest player to win Serie A’s top scorer (Capocannoniere) award — an accolade he shared with Inter Milan striker Mauro Icardi when both finished on 22 goals.
At the tail end of a “terrible” season for Verona he has finally decided to hang up his boots, but he admits to being emotional.
“My final game is getting closer and when you know it’s coming you start to have some great and not so great feelings. It’s an intense experience,” Toni told Radio Deejay.
“I should have stopped four or five years ago, but I kept on scoring so I continued to play. It was only after I spoke to my family that I decided to end this wonderful career.”
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