Juve's start to this season has been rather pedestrian. This draw follows a goalless draw at home against Sampdoria in a match which should have been an opportunity for the Bianconeri to pick up an easy three points against a team which came close to relegation last season. Despite adding Paul Pogba, Bremer, and Filip Kostić to their roster during the off-season, Juve do not appear to have significantly improved. In both of the previous two seasons, Juve finished fourth and were barely able to clinch Champions League qualification. A similar result or perhaps even worse could be on the cards this season.
At the end of the 2019-20 season, no one could have foreseen the possibility of Juve being in this situation just a little over two years later. The Turin club had just won the Serie A title for the ninth consecutive season. However, in a shocking turn of events, head coach Maurizio Sarri was fired following an upset loss to Lyon in the round of 16 of the Champions League. No one saw this firing coming, especially because despite the early Champions League exit, Sarri had just led Juve to the Scudetto in just his first season on the touchlines at the Allianz Stadium.
Sarri would be replaced by Andrea Pirlo. This would turn out to be the move that arguably "nuked" Juve; Pirlo's utter incompetence in his one season in charge was almost unprecedented. He somehow managed to lead a team which was expected to win Serie A by an enormous margin to just fourth in the league. Juve only qualified for the Champions League because Cristiano Ronaldo's individual brilliance bailed Pirlo out time and again. Pirlo's abject failure in the position not only led to his firing at the end of the season; it also likely played a major role in Ronaldo's decision to return to Manchester United during the off-season of 2021.
The fallout of Sarri's firing and Pirlo's tenure continued into the 2021-22 season. Juve's total points tally of 70 was their lowest since the 2010-11 campaign when they amassed just 58 points and finished seventh in the league. In addition, Juve were knocked out of the Champions League in the round of 16 for the third consecutive season, losing 4-1 on aggregate to Villarreal.
Juve have been extremely busy in the transfer market in recent times. Even before the most recent off-season, Juve had made a major signing in Vlahović, having signed the Serbian striker for €70 million in January 2022. Since then, players such as Paulo Dybala, Matthijs de Ligt, Álvaro Morata, Giorgio Chiellini, and Dejan Kulusevski (on a loan deal) have left the club. While Juve have attempted to find suitable replacements for them, it is clear that AC and Inter Milan have since left Juve in the dust; it will likely be another year of struggle for the club which so recently had a stranglehold over Serie A.
One has to wonder how everything would have played out if Sarri had never been fired. Would Juve have won the past two league titles? Would Ronaldo still be in Turin? For that matter, might Juve have finally broken their Champions League drought dating back to 1996?
If club owner Andrea Agnelli had not hastily made those two decisions back in August 2020, we would likely be talking about Juventus in a very different light today. Instead, Juve find themselves playing catch-up - a position that, barring a major turnaround, will once again be familiar to them this season.
Every club goes through down periods from time to time; however, seldom is such a period triggered by one or two singular moments. Yet, that's exactly what has happened to Juve. When will they reclaim their spot at the pinnacle of Italian football? It could very well be years from now.
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