The year is 2020: Juventus is on a 9-year title streak, financially strapped, and home to a certain Cristiano Ronaldo. No, this isn’t an Inter fan’s worst nightmare but actually how the football landscape looks today. But we’re not quite there just yet. Going back just 10 years, very few would have expected the disgraced Italian giants to not only bounce back but to bounce back so hard.
Calciopoli, Relegation, and Return to Serie A
In 2006, five Italian football clubs were accused and found guilty of match-fixing and other illegal actions that threatened to jeopardize the integrity of the sport. Amongst them, and most heavily punished, was Italy’s biggest club Juventus. Unlike the other teams involved in the scandal, Juventus were punished to the full extent of the law as they were not only stripped of the league titles they won in 2005 and 2006 but were demoted to Serie B and given a points deduction for the next season. That 2006 preseason was a turbulent one for Juventus. The summer of 2006 saw a lot of disorder for Juventus as the manager and quite a few notable stars left the club while some members of the board and executive management either resigned or received bans from football. Despite all the chaos off the pitch, the players still did their part and Juventus were swiftly promoted after winning the league in their first and only Serie B season. After an immediate return to top-flight football for the Old Lady, things were looking on the up and up for Juventus. They managed to finish in the Champions League places straight after promotion and even went one better the next season as they finished as runners up to rivals Inter. It felt like just a matter of time before Juventus returned to their familiar position at the top of Italian football.
2009/10
Juventus began the 09/10 season with 4 straight wins and 3 clean sheets, but 3 draws and a loss in the next 4 games would set the tone for the rest of the season. An unimpressive 1.7 points per game (that’s about midtable form) over the next 9 games was enough to paper over the cracks and ensure Juventus went into the new year in 3rd place. After the winter break, things started to really fall apart for the club as they ended the month of January with 3 league defeats and a loss to rivals Inter in the Coppa Italia. That little run of form was enough to earn manager Ciro Ferrara the sack as he was replaced by fellow Italian Alberto Zaccheroni. The next month was slightly better for Juventus under their new coach as they advanced to the Round of 16 in the Europa League and briefly sat in the Champions League spots.
With just the last third of the season remaining, Juventus still had the chance to secure Champions League football and maybe even pick up a trophy. That little run of form would prove to just be a classic case of the new manager bounce as their season totally imploded. Juve threw away a 3-1 first-leg lead in the Europa League by losing by the same 4-1 scoreline that got them knocked out of the Champions League by Bayern Munich - but this time it was Fulham. That elimination was enough to destroy morale for the rest of the season as Juventus bounced between 6th and 7th in their remaining league games and finished the campaign with a humbling 3-nil defeat to Milan. Such a pathetic season for such a big club as Juventus was probably the wake-up call the club needed to really make the changes that needed to be made.
2010/11
The next year wasn’t much better if that’s where you thought this was going. Juventus once again finished in 7th while somehow managing to get eliminated from the Europa League with no wins, no defeats, and 6 draws. They also ensured they went their 4th season in a row without a trophy as they lost at home to AS Roma in the quarter-final of the Coppa Italia. Despite all that, the foundations laid and the actions taken in the 2010/11 season are a large part of the reason Juventus are where they are today. Juventus may have had 2 of the worst seasons in their history one after the other but the way the shortcomings of the team and the club as a whole were exposed would be essential to how Juventus would begin to plan for the future for the next few years.
Rejuvenation: Stability
The first phase of the revival, and probably the most important, was stability. If a club is in stable condition, it can simultaneously plan for the near future and the long-term and not get caught in the feedback loop of short-term thinking that clubs like Arsenal and even Barcelona find themselves in today. To achieve stability, you need your finances in order. According to the Deloitte Money League, in 2009, Juventus had an estimated revenue of just over 200 million euros. Fast forward to the 2020 edition and Juventus have more than doubled that amount to roughly 460 million euros. Likewise with total valuation: In 2009, Juve were worth 450 million and today they’re worth an incredible 1.5 billion.
That may not seem like a lot if you compare Juventus to clubs like Barcelona or Bayern Munich but it’s important to keep in mind that Juventus were relegated quite recently. The club hasn’t just gotten stable, they’ve become sustainable. Of course, complex factors like inflation exist but I think it’s fair to say that Juventus have done quite a lot right in these last 10 or so years. But what exactly? For one, Juventus went ahead and became the first Italian club to build and own their own stadium, completing the construction just before the 11/12 season started. By building their stadium which is now known as Allianz Stadium, Juventus became part of the first wave of clubs that began modernizing themselves in the 2010s. This new stadium had a larger capacity than the Stadio Olimpico that Juve had shared with Torino for most of their history and allowed the club to nearly triple their annual match day revenue in just their first year in their new home. At this point, Juventus generate over 6 times what they used to before they moved to the Allianz.
The next factor in achieving stability for Juventus was an approach to spending that one wouldn’t consider frugal or cheap but rather measured. For example, if you take a look at Juve’s main starting lineup for the 2013-14 season when the club won the league with over a hundred points, you’ll see quite a few big names like Tevez, Pogba, and Buffon. Interestingly though, this team was assembled for just under 130 million euros. That number becomes even more impressive once you consider that Buffon alone accounts for 53 million euros of that total. Since Juventus came back from relegation, they’ve not only found ways to maximize and increase their revenue but they’ve been very careful with how they manage the resources they do have.
Success
Juventus are currently enjoying probably the most successful period in their history and to be quite honest they don’t look like stopping any time soon. The club has won a historic 9 league titles in a row and managed to win 4 consecutive Coppa Italia titles between 2015 and 2018. Juventus have also reached 2 Champions League Finals in the last 5 years and now that they have Ronaldo they’ll be hoping to win their first Champions League in nearly 25 years. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves here - we’re talking about what Juventus has actually achieved and more importantly how.
In football, we typically attribute success to a few key players and throw in an honourable mention for the manager if anyone is still paying attention, but in the case of Juventus, I’ll try to make sure everyone gets the credit they deserve. Starting with the appointment of Antonio Conte in 2011, the club has consistently hired the right man for the job. In the 5 years between relegation and the league title win in 2012, Juventus had 6 different full-time managers but in the next 8 years, they have only changed managers twice.
Besides hiring the right man for the job, what changed in Juve’s approach? Well, what do their last 3 managers Conte, Allegri, and Sarri have in common? All were signed with a view to implementing their own playstyle that would take the club to the next level but what Juventus started doing differently that they weren’t doing before is they started to make signings that not only complemented the manager but signings that could potentially fit into the plans of prospective managers. The club has transitioned from a 3-5-2 under Conte to 3-4-2-1 and then more of a 4-4-2 under Allegri to then more of a mix between 4-3-3 and 4-3-1-2 under Sarri.
If you pay attention, you’ll see a pattern and more importantly an evolution. Asamoah has been replaced by Alex Sandro, Pirlo by Pjanic (and then Arthur), and Tevez by Dybala and so on. Although these signings might seem like typical like-for-like replacements, they represent a gradual shift towards a more entertaining, dominant, and entertaining style of football. Take De Ligt for example. Although he’s a centre back, he’s part of that new generation or mould of modern centre backs that are comfortable with the ball at their feet and offer more than just defensive security. Of course, he’s still got some parts of his game to improve but you know exactly where he fits in the club’s long term plans and you could see him becoming even better with an accommodating club environment like Juve's.
Supremacy
The last phase of Juventus’s rebirth is supremacy or rather the search for supremacy. The club is now at the point in its recent evolution where it is looking to become not only the best team in the world but the biggest too. Juventus haven’t quite yet achieved this yet but they’ve been relentless in their pursuit to get into that sort of position. The gradual evolution of their hiring policy showcases this exactly.
When Antonio Conte was appointed as Juventus manager his CV wasn’t exactly the most impressive. He had spent most of his time outside Serie A and his biggest achievement was winning Serie B with Bari. Now, of course, we know now that he’s a great coach and one of the most important figures in Juve’s recent history but at the time he was quite a gamble. Compare his credentials at the time of appointment to those of Allegri. Unlike Conte, Allegri was quite experienced and successful at the top level and even had some notable achievements in Europe.
Likewise, if you compare Sarri to Conte and Allegri, you’ll see that when he was appointed he not only had the experience of working at a very high level but he already had a European trophy to his name. As the years have progressed and Juventus has passed through each of the phases of their revival, they have been able to attract a higher calibre of manager with each successive appointment. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone like Pep Guardiola was in charge of the club within the next 5 years. The same goes for the players. Signings like Higuain, Dybala, and Ronaldo haven’t just strengthened the team on the field but they’ve raised the club’s profile off the field.
Because the club has been run so well financially for the last decade or so, they’ve been able to make a few additions that offer more to the team than just their ability. Ronaldo is obviously the prime example of this. Ronaldo was signed in the summer of 2018 with the purpose of leading the club to a much-desired Champions League trophy, to raise the club’s prestige, and to get people’s eyes on Juventus. Although they haven’t won the Champions League yet, Ronaldo’s arrival has definitely made Juventus grow as a brand. The club has done other things to raise their profile and reinvent their image, too, like changing their famous club crest from the classic black and white striped oval to a more modern, minimalist black J or ditching their typical black and white striped kit in favour of a more stylish, casual design. If you include other ventures like the J Hotel and the club’s ever-increasing profile and continued success then it seems only inevitable that Juventus win that long-awaited Champions League and join that group of super-elite clubs.
To sum up just how eventful the last 15 years have been for the Turin-based club, Juventus were caught match-fixing, were relegated, came back, won the league 9 times in a row, have reached 2 Champions League finals, and are now one of the finest destinations in Europe. Many people at different times in these last couple of years deserve plenty of credit but I think most of the praise should go towards the club’s executive management and especially to individuals like Andrea Agnelli and the Agnelli family as a whole. Football works downwards so if you have a good director of football, a good chairman, good owners, the more likely you are to identify the right manager for the job and the right players for the manager. I also have a great deal of respect for players like Del Piero and Buffon that remained with the club despite potentially missing out on years of top-level football. But let me put the question towards you the reader, who do you think deserves the most credit for Juventus’s recent success?
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