Tag Archives: Juventus

Juventus can be easily defined into two distinct eras, well in the ‘modern’ era anyway. I am not going to pretend to know of their entire history from when the club was founded, in 1897, to the present. That’d just be a C&P piece, and anyone can do those. Anyways, the Juve of the modern era can be defined distinctly between pre and post Calciopoli. Juve were forcefuly relegated in 2006 due to corruption that stemmed from their directors, it also affected other clubs like Milan but that’s another story. It was the first time in their history that Juve suffered the ignominy of playing in Serie B.

Juve, at the time, were fast becoming the pre-eminent force in Italian football, with stars such as Ibra, Thuram, Cannivaro, Nedved, Buffon, Trezeguet and Del Piero. It’s open to conjecture as to how far the club would’ve gone without the corruptive influence of the directors, but the club had won two of the three titles prior to Calciopolo coming to the fore in 2006. The squad was one to be feared, with Capello at the helm, therefore you get the impression they’d have gone on to dominate Serie A and be sitting at Europe’s top table, perhaps with one or two more European trophies in their well laden trophy cabinet……

So, The Old Lady played one season in Serie B, earning promotion back to Seria A at the first attempt. But they lost a few star players, with Thuram, Ibra and Cannavaro all moving on to pastures new. The club didn’t begrudge them for wanting to move, it was understandable especially as two of them were nearing the end of their careers, with one captaining his country to World Cup glory just after the scandal broke. The club also needed the money due to the loss of earnings due to playing a division lower and not having any European football. Del Piero captained Juve to Serie B ‘glory’, leading the way with 21 goals to finish as top scorer. Nedved, Buffon and Trezeguet also stayed with the club, to help them out of the mire, as it were.

Didier Deschamps was the manager during their sole season in Serie B, but oddly, and mistakenly as he himself later admitted, chose to leave Juve in the summer of 2007. In the subsequent time period Juve had 5 managers, which is not ideal, but also shows the expectancy with which any manager is met upon taking what amounts to the biggest job in Italian football, beyond the national team. In Claudio Ranieri’s first season he led the club to third in Serie A and a brief period in the Champions League, where they beat Madrid, but the team’s performance dropped in the league. Ranieri was sacked towards the end of his second season at Juve, Ciro Ferrara, a club legend, replacing him – first temporarily and then on a permanent basis. But he only last six months or so, with Alberto Zaccheroni coming in to try to steady the ship. However, he couldn’t arrest the slide and Juve finished seventh. In the summer of 2010 the Agnelli family once again came to prominence at board level, with Andrea Agnelli becoming club president. His first act was to appoint Luigi Del Neri as manager, and backing the manager quite heavily in the transfer market with players such as Krasic and Simone Pepe joining, amongst others, but the squad failed to gel and finished outside of the Euro qualifying places.

Club legend Alessandro Del Piero

Once again Juve have seen fit to replace an experienced coach, albeit one without a passion for the job, with a club legend. Antonio Conte was appointed as manager this summer, having successfully led Siena to promotion to Seria A. Besides the promotion Conte has done little on the managerial front, being sacked on a few occasions. He does know what it means to play for Juve, having played for 12 years with club, winning numerous titles, and playing under much vaunted coaches such as Trapattoni and Lippi. Whilst one could say ‘oh he struggled before’ and use that as a stick with which to beat him, one has to take into account that with the step up to Juve he will also see a rise in the quality of players at his disposal and facilities the team uses. You get the feeling he knows how to handle the egos, having played with some and seen Lippi and Trap handle things on a first-hand basis.

The squad has been enhanced by no less than six new faces, with Pirlo and Vidal adding quality to the midfield, and Vucinic adding to the already bloated ranks in attack. You get the feeling that club legend Del Piero will be taking a back seat role this season, especially given that the club has talents such as Iaquinta, Quagliarella, Toni and Matri on the books. His experience will however be vital in the dressing room and on the training pitch, where he will be expected to help new arrivals settle. Juve have, mostly, restricted their purchases to players already battle-hardened in Serie A, which could prove decisive in the drive for the top three; only the top three qualify for Champions League football as of now. There will be five or six teams challenging for these players, the Milan clubs will almost certainly be challenging, while Napoli have strengthened well and kept hold of key players, Roma under new ownership have a new found optimism despite losing Vucinic, while clubs such as Lazio, Udinese and Fiorentina could challenge if they manage to build momentum, which is a commodity you cannot buy, even if the club is owned by a Sheikh.

You [I] just get the feeling that Juve, having bought well, and with still time to add to their squad [perhaps in defense], will be challenging at the top of the table. There is a new aura about the club, with the Agnelli family coming back in and the club about to move into a new stadium, one that is better suited to football unlike the massive, soulless monstrosity that was the Delle Alpi, which in 2001 played host to only 237 fans for a Coppa Italia clash between Juve and Sampdoria. A club legend leading the team into a new era, new stadium and an enhanced squad, this could just be the start of a new era of success for the Turin side, and a chance to bury the ghosts of Calciopoli.

One thing is certain whether success comes or not, and that is this: The Old Lady will never die.