Juventus veteran Leonardo Bonucci admits defeat to AC Milan is disappointing.
Missing Champions League football is a blow, admits Bonucci, who also concedes teammates will depart.
He said, “Finishing like this hurts, I’m sorry, there’s great disappointment. We didn’t deserve to finish like this for what we gave in a difficult year, as well as for our fans who haven’t celebrated a trophy for two years.
“Reaching the Champions League, even if we would have been on the field, would have brought us a little satisfaction for them too. This year has been almost surreal, the group is made up of great men and we deserved something extra.
“When the news comes out, you talk about it and it takes away your energy. At the same time, they brought out our pride, our anger, and for many games we brought home results without ever giving up. In the long run, we kind of lost this.
“We struggled to score and today we’re here to end a very bad season. When you don’t lift trophies at Juventus, you can’t define it differently.
“It’s not a lack of confidence, sometimes the match plan didn’t go the way we wanted. We didn’t have the tools to get out of it and we struggled. Then the psychological part reunited us off the pitch, but something was missing on the pitch.
“I hope that next year Juventus will be reborn in terms of trophies. It’s not up to me to decide how to restart, there is a club. The group is very good, we will lose players for obvious reasons, but they are young people who have sometimes dragged us along and their enthusiasm must be contagious. We seniors must help them grow.”
