Juve seek bright new dawn with Del Neri at the helm

Juventus were the first Serie A team to start pre-season training earlier this month.

The Bianconeri, now under the charge of Luigi Del Neri, will officially kick off their 2010/11 campaign next week when they play either Shamrock Rovers (Ireland) or Bnei Yehuda (Israel) in the third qualifying round of the Europa League.

Juventus are coming from an awful season in which they suffered early elimination from all cup competitions and finished a disappointing seventh in the Serie A.

Life at Juventus after the sacking of Claudio Ranieri was anything but rosy. Novice coach Ciro Ferrara enjoyed a brilliant start but when the going got tough, the former Juve defender could not halt the team's slide.

His replacement, the experienced Alberto Zaccheroni, fared even worse and that left Juventus with no option but to appoint a new coach.

Juventus have also overhauled their board of directors which is now chaired by Andrea Agnelli, son of the late Juventus boss Umberto Agnelli.

Jean-Claude Blanc, the former chairman, is no longer involved in key matters such as transfers of players and appointment of coaches.

Alessio Secco was also shown the backdoor. He has been replaced by Giuseppe Marotta.

These changes were inevitable. Keeping the status quo was simply not an option. Juve badly needed a revamp at board level because Blanc and his entourage failed to deliver despite spending big.

Some inexplicable decisions taken by the former club chiefs left the team facing negative consequences. Take the appointment of Zaccheroni for instance.

The ex-Milan coach had been without a job for almost five years, bar a spell of a few weeks at Torino. With him in charge, Juventus went from the frying pan into the fire.

In the past three years, Juventus have spent a fortune on new players, the likes of Mohamed Sissoko, Christian Poulsen, Carvalho Amauri, Felipe Melo and Diego.

Still the team failed to achieve the expected results. Now Juve crave a bright new dawn. The glory days seem a thing of the past and this should not be the way of things for a top club like Juventus.

Del Neri was the brains behind Chievo's ascendancy to the upper reaches of Italian football. His achievements were such that he had been chosen by then Champions League holders Porto to replace Jose Mourinho when the Portuguese left to join Chelsea.

Much to his dismay, Del Neri was fired before he had even made his official debut in Portugal.

Del Neri had short and unsuccessful stints with Roma and Palermo between 2004 and 2006 before returning to Chievo to replace Giuseppe Pillon. His second tenure was disappointing as he could not prevent the Verona-based outfit from being relegated to the Serie B in 2007.

Samp lifeline

Del Neri's career looked to be going downhill but Sampdoria handed him a lifeline in 2009.

At Samp, Del Neri only made a few high-profile signings but he still led the Blucerchiati to an unexpected top-four finish, beating champions Inter, Roma, Juventus and Milan in the process.

Now, at 60, Del Neri finally has the opportunity to prove his worth at a big club. He was denied this chance by Porto, reportedly due to a rift with key members of the team. Even during his five-month stint with Roma, Del Neri is said to have had a difficult relationship with the club's senior players.

It is Del Neri's evident lack of experience in managing top clubs that has left many surprised by his appointment at Juventus. Besides, it is no secret that, at first, Juventus wanted to hand the job to former Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez, the man who eventually replaced Mourinho at Inter.

The mastermind behind Del Neri's move to Turin is Marotta. He has been hired by Juventus to plug the huge gap left by Luciano Moggi following the match-fixing scandal of 2006.

Marotta, like the transfer-wizard Moggi, is very shrewd when it comes to dealing with agents and signing up-and-coming players at bargain prices.

Marotta was instrumental in Venezia's historic promotion to the Serie A in 1998 and Sampdoria's revival of late.

Juventus are coming from three trophy-less years, so the club is under huge pressure to end this barren run. There are no two ways about it... Del Neri has to succeed where his predecessors, Ranieri and Ferrara, both failed.

Del Neri faces an uphill struggle but he should be given enough time to prove himself in Turin.

Before signing for Juventus in 1994, Marcello Lippi had coached relatively modest clubs like Cesena and Atalanta. Everyone knows what happened after that as Juve became a major force in Europe with Lippi at the helm.

Who knows, maybe Del Neri will follow in the golden footsteps of Lippi.