Juve fire blanks

The Serie A is now in its straight for home but with 24 points still up for grabs all issues are far from settled.

At the top echelons, Milan’s shock defeat at Palermo on Saturday saw their nearest pursuers – Inter, Napoli and Udinese – join the hunt for the league title.

At the other end, Bari’s demise from the top flight is by now a foregone conclusion. But the same cannot be said of the other two relegation spots.

As things stand, seven teams are hovering in drop zone. So, it is anyone’s guess who between Chievo, Parma, Catania, Sampdoria, Cesena, Lecce and Brescia will join Bari in Serie B next season.

While so many teams will be engaged in a quest to achieve their goals in the next six weeks or so, a few others have nothing to play for, practically.

Juventus currently lie in a modest mid-table position, away from the allure of the top spots.

True, they can still harbour aspirations to qualify for the Europa League but it would be hard for them to catch up with sixth-placed Roma who are five points ahead of the Bianconeri. Indeed, the odds are heavily stacked against Juve.

Much more was expected of the Turin giants this season especially after the overhaul in their admini-strative quarters last year and the club’s active participation in both transfer windows.

Last summer, Juve were only second to mega-rich Manchester City in terms of cash spent on the signing of new players. And yet, results were impressively disappointing.

Not only were they prematurely ousted from the Europa League and Coppa Italia, but Juventus were never really involved in the title race this season.

As the campaign intensified, their dip in form worsened to an extent that they are out of the reckoning and virtually with no chance of claiming a top-four finish for the second year running.

Juventus have been inconsistent all season. They alternated between dazzling performances, in which they beat top teams Milan, Inter and Lazio, and below par displays culminated by shock upsets to strugglers Bari, Lecce and Parma.

Early in the season, Juventus beat Udinese 4-0 away. But Francesco Guidolin’s side made a stunning recovery after that shaky start and amassed a remarkable 56 points in 26 games and now they’re vying for the scudetto. That is the epitome of real consistency.

Although Juventus invested heavily on new players, critics say that few of the new signings have left their mark on the team.

With the benefit of hindsight, Juve would have been better off had they concentrated their spending spree solely on a few players of quality.

The club is now at a crossroads. Financially, Juventus are no longer as healthy as they used to be. Only recently, they reported an interim loss of €40 million.

The club’s major shareholders – the Agnelli family – have openly expressed their commitment to restoring Juve with the glory of the past. However, we all know that the Agnellis are primarily concentrating their efforts on restructuring their ailing auto business.

Juve’s no-show in the euro-laden Champions League will not help the club’s cause either.

Now, they have a long way to go to bridge the gap. Come summer, Juve will have to start all over again by signing new players and, pro-bably, hiring a new coach. And that might still not be enough for them to reap instant dividends.

After a series of off-field mishaps and under-achievements, the Juve followers world­wide are running out of patience.

You can’t blame them but history teaches that winning teams take long years to build. The challenge ahead for Juventus is to keep hold of their prized assets and bolster the squad with the signing of value-for-money players only, ones who can really help the glorious club end a long wait for the honours.

Serie A statistics...

1 draw and five defeats are all crisis-hit Sampdoria have to show from their last six games. On Sunday, they succumbed to a fourth straight home upset that left them lying just three points above the relegation trap-door. Samp’s latest executioners were Parma who returned to winning ways after a barren run of four draws and four defeats.

3rd home win on the trot (vs Bari 1-0, Palermo 2-0 and Cesena 1-0) for Lazio, who scored an early goal to interrupt Cesena’s four-match positive streak (two wins and two draws). Edy Reja’s side have not figured in a drawn match since the sharing of spoils with Chievo at home on the 24th day.

5 penalties were taken last weekend. Edinson Cavani (Napoli), Antonio Di Natale (Udinese), Francesco Totti (Roma) and Abdelkader Ghezzal (Bari) were all successful from the spot. Massimo Maccarone had a golden opportunity to help Sampdoria salvage a home draw against Parma but blasted his penalty wide.

6 winless games in a row (two draws and four defeats) were the prelude to Chievo’s fourth away win of the term. On Sunday, Chievo made a giant step towards extending their stay among the elite thanks to an away win at lowly Bari. The latter re-corded their most recent win on the 18th day. Since then, Bari were beaten nine times and only managed three draws.

21 goals were scored on the 30th day. Foreigners contributed with nine goals and the total scored so far amount to 721. Inter and Udinese boast the most prolific attacks with 56 goals each while Milan have the best defensive record so far, having conceded 22 goals. Catania are still in search of their first away win.