Pjanic claims: ‘Roma are Scudetto contenders but too early for Juventus’

Miralem Pjanic has given his verdict on his two former Italian clubs, and the gap between them is considerable.

Speaking at the Festival dello Sport in Trento, with quotes via CalcioMercato, the former Bosnia midfielder was effusive about Roma.

“Roma can dream of the Scudetto. They’re nice to watch, it’s a pleasure to look at them, they play well, and if Dybala is well up front, with Malen they really can bring the Scudetto back to Rome. They’re the team that deserves it most at the moment.”

Pjanic: ‘Too early for Juventus’

He was considerably more cautious about Juventus, who finished sixth last season and are in the Europa League as a result.

“I think it’s early to talk about the Scudetto. If you look at last season you can’t start with that ambition. Inter are favourites for the squad, then there are Napoli and Roma,” Pjanic said. “The primary objective has to be rebuilding, but quickly, because at Juve you always want to win. You can talk about getting back into the Champions League, that would be the right thing.”

The assessment lands at an awkward moment for Luciano Spalletti, who spoke this weekend about feeling “250 million of responsibility” at the club.

Pjanic also tipped a familiar name as his successor. “The new Pjanic? Kerim’s brother, Emre Alajbegovic, is 13. We’ll talk about him in a couple of years, you’ll see.”

On team-mates, he put Lionel Messi first. “I spent a year with him and when I saw what he did daily, it wasn’t explicable. You had the feeling he could really do whatever he wanted.”

He reserved similar praise for Cristiano Ronaldo. “I’ve never seen Ronaldo’s mental strength in anyone else. With Cristiano I always started 1-0, he was obsessed with scoring. Even if he missed ten goals, he had that mentality that let him go on and be sure he’d score next time.”