On Friday, Alberto Zaccheroni was unveiled as an interim coach at Juventus up to the end of the season.
A series of poor results at home and in Europe left the Juve owners with no option other than to sack Ciro Ferrara. That move was highly predictable, albeit long overdue.
Juve's first signs of malfunction surfaced on the seventh day of the league in a 0-2 away upset to Palermo. Before that match in October, the Bianconeri had amassed 14 points out of 18 available and were still unbeaten after six matches.
Back-to-back draws with Genoa and Bologna had already exposed some deficiencies in the team but that setback in Sicily started things off.
Further upsets were in store for the Old Lady as Juventus faltered badly and slid off the title pace at a speedy rate. The 2-3 home defeat to Napoli on the 11th day epitomised Juve's season as the southerners came from two goals down to conquer the Olympic Stadium.
A 5-2 win at modest Atalanta and a hard-fought victory at home over struggling Udinese concealed Juve's malaise. In terms of consistency, Juve were no match to league leaders Inter.
Juve's home win over Inter in December partially halted the rot allowing under-fire Ferrara to extend his stay in Turin by a few more weeks despite unexpected defeats to Bari and Catania.
The reverse against Catania, in particular, was embarrassing because it came at home against a side that had not registered a single away win all season. To this day, it is still the Sicilians' only three-pointer away from their Massimino Stadium.
At the time, it would have been a sensible decision to show Ferrara the backdoor and try to revive the team's fortunes with another coach.
Over the Christmas holidays, the new man in charge would have had ample time to work with his players and single out the weak points of the team ahead of the January transfer window.
The delay in sacking Ferrara cost Juventus more precious points as last month they lost to Milan (0-3), Chievo (0-1) and Roma (1-2) in succession. Besides that, Juve were also knocked out of the Coppa Italia quarter-finals by Inter.
One cannot understand why Juventus took so long to part company with Ferrara. Many argue this happened due to respect to a former long-serving player or, perhaps, lack of adequate candidates to replace the former defender.
Whatever the reasons, Juventus could regret the fact that they took so long to redress the imbalance at the club.
Now, many reckon the appointment of Zaccheroni - a coach who has only been in a job for five months of the last five years (with bitter city rivals Torino in 2006/07) - clearly highlights the incompetence of the club's decision-makers at the moment. This, not to mention the big-money flops Juve signed in the aftermath of the 2006 match-fixing scandal.
Only time will tell if Zaccheroni is the right man to lift Juventus in the coming months.
Surely, his job is no easy from all aspects. The players' morale is at its lowest ebb and the injury toll is unending.
On Sunday, Juve were held to a one-all draw by Lazio in Turin.
In his aftermatch comments club chief Roberto Bettega hit the nail on its head when saying: "It almost seems that the side is afraid to win, even if we are in the right position to do so."
Bettega may be right. In fact, in the matches against Bologna (1-1), Napoli (2-3), Roma (1-2) and Lazio (1-1), in the Serie A, against Inter (1-2) in the Coppa Italia, and against Bordeaux (1-1) and Bayern Munich (1-4), in the Champions League, Juventus were always in the lead but in all occasions they failed to conserve their advantage.
Not long ago, when Marcello Lippi and Fabio Capello were in charge at Juventus, the Bianconeri showed an incredible dose of fighting spirit and team-work. The numerous late winners Juve used to score in those years almost became a trademark in the Serie A.
This season, that same attitude is almost non-existent as Juve have thrown away several points which they had in the grasp of their hands.
It's this aspect of the game that Zaccheroni needs to start from to revive Juve's hopes. Otherwise he will be on borrowed time and likely to make way for someone more important to handle the job... Rafa Benitez, perhaps!
Serie A statistics
1st positive away result for Genoa after four straight defeats (vs Livorno 1-2, Lazio 0-1, Milan 2-5 and Roma 0-3) as the Liguria team held on to a 0-0 draw at Napoli on Saturday. For the southerners this was their 15th game without defeat. Napoli, along with Inter, Palermo and Sampdoria, are still unbeaten at home. Genoa have not recorded an away victory since beating Bologna (3-1) on the seventh day.
2 successive wins and a draw saw Sampdoria recover lost ground in their pursuit to challenge for a place in Europe. Two first-half goals were enough for Samp to overcome lowly Atalanta who succumbed to a fourth defeat in their last five winless away fixtures.
3 players - Marco Padalino (Sampdoria), Andrea Cossu (Cagliari) and Fabio Liverani (Palermo) - received marching orders. Two penalties were taken. Paulo Barreto (Bari) was on target for the eighth successive game and Alessandro Del Piero hit Juve's goal in a 1-1 draw with Lazio.
4 points separate Juventus from the fourth spot as they could not go beyond a 1-1 home draw with Lazio. This was Juve's first positive result after three defeats. Overall, it was their first draw since the eighth day (vs Fiorentina 1-1).
12 positive results in a row (nine wins and three draws) have seen Roma reach Milan in second place. On Sunday, Claudio Ranieri's side had to sweat for a home victory over bottom side Siena who only managed one point from their last six outings - a 1-1 home draw with Cagliari.
23 goals were scored on the 22nd day. Six of the weekend's nine fixtures (Parma-Inter was postponed to February 10) finished in a draw. Total number of goals scored so far amount to 557. Vladimir Koman (Bari) and Stefan Okaka (Roma) were the only two players who came on as substitutes and found the back of the net. Antonio di Natale (Udinese) and Diego Milito (Inter) still top the scorers' list with 13 goals each.