Juve, Milan follow in Barca's footsteps

This time last year, Barcelona parted company with Frank Rijkaard and appointed the relatively inexperienced Pep Guardiola as coach.

Guardiola, a former Barca defender who also played for Brescia and Roma in Serie A, was only 37 years at the time.

The move by the Catalans seemed risky but, luckily for them, it paid rich dividends as Barca went on to complete an unprecedented treble by winning the Champions League, the Primera Liga and King's Cup. Guardiola became an instant hit.

In Italy, Juventus and Milan are looking to emulate Barcelona by turning to two former club players with no Serie A coaching knowledge in their bid to get back to winning ways after a few years away from the limelight.

Former Italy defender Ciro Ferrara had a dream debut on Juve's hot seat as he led the Bianconeri to back-to-back wins against Siena (3-0) and Lazio (2-0) in the last two league games of season 2008/09 following Claudio Ranieri's sacking.

Ferrara was only appointed ad interim but in the close season, Juventus decided for a longer contract only after having thoroughly considered other candidates for the post including Antonio Conte, who had just led Bari to promotion to the top flight.

Ferrara, 42, has a mammoth task ahead of him as Juventus desperately want to dethrone champions Inter next season. The fact that Ferrara is already acquainted with the club, after 11 years of sterling service between 1994 and 2005, will make life easier for him.

The same goes for Leonardo, the 39-year-old Milan coach appointed to replace Carlo Ancelotti after the latter's eight-year stay at the club came to an end last May.

Juve sought to add more options to Ferrara with the signing of playmaker Diego from Werder Bremen and Fabio Cannavaro from Real. However, the same cannot be said of Leonardo, as Milan decided to let fans' favourite Kaka join Real Madrid in Spain.

Like Guardiola a year ago, Ferrara and Leonardo are two big risks for Juve and Milan as critics are already questioning what will happen if results are not forthcoming for these two novices?

In recent history, Juventus and Milan seldom got it wrong when it came to appointing a new coach.

In 1994, Marcello Lippi, who had previously coached Cesena, Lucchese, Atalanta and Napoli among other less-quoted clubs, was the man chosen by Juventus to start a golden era at the club. Similarly for Milan with Arrigo Sacchi, a Parma coach in the Serie B.

And what about Fabio Capello in 1991?

Capello had never coached at the top level before and was previously in charge of Milan's youth team. Despite his lack of experience on the bench, Capello went on to improve on Sacchi's achievements at the San Siro.

The same thing happened more recently with Ancelotti, now at Chelsea. In the early days of his coaching career, he was at the helm of modest Reggiana and Parma before accepting the Juve job and then Milan in 2001.

Ancelotti was shown the backdoor by Juventus after two barren seasons but Milan still gambled on their former midfielder.

Ancelotti went on to win eight major trophies, including the 2003/04 scudetto and two Champions League titles in 2002/03 and 2006/07.