How Juventus have gone from Serie B to the best team in the world

Up until May 2006 and the discovery of the Calciopoli scandal Juventus were the most successful team in Italy, they had won more Serie A league titles than any other team in the country with 27, won 9 European Cups and a staggering 19 Coppa Italia’s. But as a result of investigation into alleged match fixing and bribing of officials in the league Juventus were relegated.

Serie B – Dismantling of star studded squad

Juventus had a squad capable of dominating the Italian top flight for years to come but with their relegation to the second tier most of the star names left:

Zlatan Ibrahimovic & Patrick Vieira to Internazionale

Fabio Cannavaro & Emerson to Real Madrid

Lillian Thuram & Gianluca Zambrotta to Barcelona

Adrian Mutu to Fiorentina

Rather than replacing these stars Juventus decided to dip into their abundance of young talent in the youth teams, plucking Claudio Marchisio and Sebastian Giovinco to play with the first team. Club stalwarts including Gianluigi Buffon, Alessandro Del Piero, Pavel Nedved, Mauro Camoranesi and David Trezeguet decided to stay and help the Old Lady get back to the big time, Serie A. Former player Didier Deschamps took up the challenge of managing them through this period following Fabio Capello’s resignation who became the manager of Real Madrid. They were to start their Serie B campaign with a deficit of 9 points due to further punishments for match fixing.

The Bianconeri’s Serie B campaign began slowly with a 1-1 draw with Rimini, a team littered with nobodies and from this point on Juve seemed to click and went on an 8 match winning spree. After tying up the league title Didier Deschamps announced he was resigning as manager due to differences with the board. Claudio Ranieri would take over for Juve’s first season back in Serie A.

Serie A – Flirting with the top

With the ‘Tinker Man’ as their manager for the 07/08 season ‘le Zebre’ managed to finish third in their first season back in Serie A and qualify for the following seasons Champions League. The following season was an improvement, finishing second in the league but going against the champions league odds and whimpering out in the knockout stages against Chelsea. Following an indifferent end to the season in which Juve went winless for 7 games and all but handed the trophy to Inter, Ranieri was sacked.

The manager for the following season, 09/10, was originally Ciro Ferrara but he was sacked midway through the season and Alberto Zacceroni took over. Juve struggled domestically, finishing 7th in Serie A and in Europe where, after being knocked out of the Champions League, they were also knocked out of the Europa League by British team Fulham.

The following season didn’t go much better with Juve finishing in 7th place yet again and not even getting out of their Europa League group, they needed a change, and that’s exactly what they got.

Back to the Top – Antonio Conte

With the return of one of Juve fan’s favourite ever players as their new manager in the 11/12 season, Antonio Conte set about making wholesale changes to the team that failed to deliver for the previous two seasons.

A total of 29 players were sold, loaned out or terminated during the first season with future superstars such as Arturo Vidal and Stephan Lichtsteiner joining the club at the same time as Fabio Quagliarella and perhaps one of the greatest signings of all time, Andrea Pirlo on a free transfer from Milan.

Success wasn’t immediate with 2 wins and 2 draws from their first four games keeping them mid-table but 7 wins and 3 draws in their next 10 games gave them some breathing space at the top of Serie A. With no European football to contend with Juve stormed to the league title without losing a single game (W23 D15), the first Italian club to do so in the new 38 match format.

The following season saw the inspired signing of 19 year old Paul Pogba on a free transfer from Manchester United which further solidified Juventus’ squad. They went on to claim another league title and reach the quarter finals of the UEFA Champions League, losing out to Bayern Munich. The Coppa Italia was a disappointment, losing to Lazio in the semi-final.

The 13/14 season further strengthened their grip on the Serie A, winning the title with 103 points, the highest amount ever recorded but as before they suffered European heartbreak, going out of the UCL in the group stages and losing out in the semi-finals of the Europa League to Benfica.

The next season was another breakthrough, with the signing of experienced campaigner Patrice Evra and relative novice Alvaro Morata Juventus once again claimed the Serie A title in convincing fashion with a 17 point cushion. In this season though the Coppa Italia could allude them no more as they claimed it for the first time since their revival with a 2-1 extra time win against Lazio. Juve battled their way to the final of the Champions League, beating Real Madrid en route to meet Barcelona in the final in Berlin. Barcelona came out on top winning the game 3-1 in front of the 70,000 fans in attendance.

Last season Juve consolidated their squad with the additions of the young Argentine striker Paulo Dybala, midfield enforcer Sami Khedira, rangy striker Mario Manzukic and wide players Alex Sandro and Juan Cuadrado. Disappointment met them again in the UCL when they were knocked out by Bayern Munich again in the R16. They did achieve the league and cup double though.

Antonio Conte Left Juve for Chelsea (via the Italian national team) and was replaced by Massimiliano Allegri whilst Juventus sold Paul Pogba to Manchester United for £100 million last summer, spending the bulk of that money on Gonzalo Higuain and Miralem Pjanic. This season has seen Paulo Dybala come to prominence and along with Gonzalo Higuain fire them to winning the Serie A for a record 6th in a row as well as winning the Coppa Italia in style.

By many they are considered to be the best team as a collective in the world, and all that stands in their way in justifying those believers is winning the UEFA Champions League against Real Madrid at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on the 3rd of June.

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