Juve starting all over again

Luigi Delneri will not be the Juve coach next season.

The ex-Porto and Chievo mentor was the first to make the club’s decision public last week and declared that he had absolutely no regrets of his modest achievements with the ‘Old Lady’ during the past campaign.

Juventus finished the 2010/11 season in seventh place – the same position of the previous campaign. Despite the several additions in the close season and the January transfer window, the team did not register any particular improvements.

It was no surprise, therefore, that Delneri’s position at Juve came increasingly fragile as the season progressed, particularly after their early exit from the Europa League and the Coppa Italia.

Under Delneri, Juventus were really inconsistent.

The Bianconeri did manage to beat top teams such as Udinese, Inter, Milan, Roma and Lazio, but then dropped valuable points against less-fancied opposition in the shape of Bari, Sampdoria, Cesena, Chievo, Parma, Catania and Bologna.

On the 25th day, Juventus beat former Italian champions Inter 1-0 in Turin’s Olympic Stadium but then went down to Lecce and Bologna.

Towards the end of the season, Juventus were in the race for a top-four finish but their hopes were all but extinguished after they were held to unexpected draws by Cesena, Catania and Chievo despite being ahead in all three matches.

These points dropped, in the most crucial part of the campaign, were the epitome of Juve’s dismal season.

After the forced relegation to the Serie B in 2006, Juventus had to start all over again on many an occasion and with different coaches in charge, thus prompting a lack of continuity.

In 2006/07, Juventus played in Serie B under the guidance of Didier Deschamps.

The Frenchman, however, soon made way for Claudio Ranieri who steered the team to promotion at the end of the campaign.

Transitory period

Under Ranieri, Juventus were said to be in a transitory period but eventually managed to make a top-four finish in 2007/08.

The following term ended in dismay as Ranieri was shown the backdoor four games from the end of the season and novice Ciro Ferrara – a long-serving Juventus defender and currently the Italy Under-21 coach – was appointed instead.

The 2009/10 campaign started full of promises for Ferrara’s Juventus but their title aspirations faded into thin air.

Midway through the season, Ferrara was sacked and Alberto Zaccheroni, currently in charge of the Japan national team, was hired.

The move paid little dividends as Juve could only manage a modest seventh-place finish.

This time a year ago, the club also overhauled its management structure with more members of the Agnelli family – the club’s major shareholders – taking over key roles with a view to end the club’s barren run of trophy-less seasons.

The rest has happened too recently to recount.

In the past few years, Juve’s biggest mistake was their failure to find suitable long-term replacements for the old guard, particularly the likes of Alessandro Del Piero, Pavel Nedved and Mauro Camoranesi.

These players, apart from their supreme qualities as talented footballers, had a fighting spirit and a winning mentality among other virtues.

Although the club have virtually left no stone unturned and invested heavily on the transfer market, very few of the new signings left their mark.

In the meantime, Nedved retired and Camoranesi left for pastures new. Del Piero, despite still being vital for the team’s cause, is not the player he used to be.

This might explain why Juventus managed a top-four finish in seasons 2007/08 and 2008/09, at a time when the old guard still formed the backbone of the team, and finished a few places behind in the following two years.

The way forward for Juve is change. It is inevitably because Delneri and his playing modules simply did not work out for the benefit of the team.

Change for the sake of changing will not lead Juve anywhere though. This has to be well managed.

One expects the club to revert to a different transfer strategy by signing less players but of a higher value and quality.

This has not happened in the past few years as Juve acquired several second-rated players.

Serie A statistics...

1st win for bottom side Bari after five straight defeats as they scored three goals after the break to conquer Bologna’s Dall’Ara Stadium. Bologna’s winless run was extended to nine games (three draws and six defeats). Brescia left it late to salvage a home draw with Fiorentina. The Viola have finished the season without a success in their last three games.

2 identical 4-2 wins in their last two outings were not enough for Lazio to make a top-four finish. Edy Reja’s side finished level on points with Udinese in fourth place, but the Friulani prevailed thanks to their superior record in head-to-head encounters. Coppa Italia finalists Palermo were emphatically beaten at home by Chievo. For the Verona-based outfit that was their fifth away success – the first since beating Bari 2-1 on the 30th day.

3 draws and four defeats are all Cagliari have to show from their last seven outings. On Sunday, the Sardinians came from a goal down to share the spoils with Parma 1-1 at home. Parma finished the season on a high by collecting 14 points out of the last available 18. Sampdoria ended their campaign in dismay after they forfeited an early lead to finish on the losing side against Roma in the capital. Vincenzo Montella’s Roma, along Lazio and Palermo, will be Italy’s three representatives in next season’s Europa League.

3 penalties were awarded by referees in the past weekend. Mauro Zarate made no mistake from the penalty spot in Lazio’s 4-2 drubbing of Lecce. Erjon Bogdani ably converted a 49th-minute penalty to make Cesena’s defeat against Genoa more respectable. Elsewhere, Antonio Di Natale had a golden opportunity to grab his 29th goal of the season but his effort was blocked by Milan’s Marco Amelia. Meanwhile, Lecce goalkeeper Massimiliano Benassi was the only player to receive marching orders.

4 Italian representatives in next season’s Champions League. They are Milan, Inter and Napoli, who qualify to the Champions League proper, whereas fourth-placed Udinese will have to go through the third qualifying round. As from season 2012/13, Italy will have three representatives in Europe’s premier club competition.

4 home wins in a row have enabled Genoa to finish the season in mid-table. On Sunday, Davide Ballardini’s side edged Cesena by the odd goal in five after taking a 3-0 half-time lead. This was Cesena’s first defeat after back-to-back wins over Cagliari (2-0) and Brescia (1-0). Inter chalked up their 13th straight home win thanks to a comfortable 3-1 home victory over Catania.

37 goals were scored on the last day of the 2010/11 season: 17 coming from the hosts and the remaining 20 from the visitors, who managed three wins. Foreigners contributed with 14 goals while there were 17 first-half goals. Total number of goals scored in the outgoing season amount to 955. Bari’s Francesco Grandolfo grabbed a hat-trick. Three players – Giampaolo Pazzini (Inter), Antonio Floro Flores (Genoa) and Mauro Zarate (Lazio) – scored a double each. Alessandro Matri (Juventus), Nico Pulzetti and Kevin Constant (both Chievo) came on as substitutes and scored. Giuseppe Vives (Lecce) and Rolf Feltscher (Parma) committed the only two own goals of the day. Udinese’s Antonio Di Natale finished top-scorer with 28 goals.