Juventus 9-year stranglehold on the Italian Serie A looks like it will slip away with every passing second as Antonio Conte ironically looks set to lead Inter Milan to the Scudetto this season.
Inter Milan have taken an unassailable 12-point lead over Juventus with the season in its dying embers. It must be remembered that Antonio Conte won the first of Juventus’ 9 Serie A titles in a row for them in the 2011/2012 season.
Since then, Massimiliano Allegri and Maurizio Sarri have also led the Old Lady to the Italian Serie A, with Allegri also having led AC Milan to the title in the past.
After the club fired Sarri following just a season in charge, they turned to club legend Andrea Pirlo who had zero experience coaching at any level, and it was always going to be an uphill task to retain the title won by his predecessor.
It is easy to blame Pirlo, but Juventus’ decline has been in the works for a while.
After the Italian side made it to the 2014/2015 UEFA Champions League final where they lost to a MSN-inspired FC Barcelona, it was expected that the Italian side would continue to remain among Europe’s elite clubs, and two seasons later, they reached the final of the Champions League again before losing to another Spanish side Real Madrid.
They lost to Real Madrid again in the following season to that spectacular Cristiano Ronaldo overhead kick, this time before they reached the final.
After their performance in the competition, they went and signed the man who had almost singlehandedly sent them out of the UEFA Champions League on more than one occasion, Cristiano Ronaldo for around 100 million Euros as they looked to finally win the elusive UEFA Champions League title.
The next summer, they poached one of Europe’s most sought-after young defenders, Matthijs De Ligt from Ajax in a bid to claim supremacy on the continent.
Since they made these signings, they have failed to make it beyond the quarterfinals of Europe’s premier club competition, losing to smaller clubs like Olympique Lyon and FC Porto.
The decline seen in the club has been a gradual process, and they have seen their dominance even at domestic level wane over the years.
In Sarri’s last season with Napoli, the Neapolitan club pushed Juventus all the way, and Juventus only moved clear of them with a win over them at the tail end of the season.
After Sarri left for Chelsea, Juventus won the league comfortably again, but the following season when Antonio Conte joined Inter Milan as manager, Juventus were saved only by the fact that the season was split in half by coronavirus and all the teams lost form after the resumption of the league.
They ended up losing the domestic cup, Copa Italia to Napoli. This season, they are in fourth place on the log, with almost no hope of retaining their title, and sporting bet companies will surely have huge odds on them winning the title even with the vastly experienced Ronaldo, Gianluigi Buffon, Giorgio Chiellini, and Leonardo Bonucci in their ranks. Their era of dominance seems to have come to an end.
