By Panos Bletsos

It is one of the biggest and best supported clubs in the world, although their enviable trophy cabinet has had no new additions for nine long years. No titles that stood, that is, as two consecutive Serie A pieces of silverware gained in the mid-2000s were eventually revoked. The Calciopoli scandal seriously tarnished its image, but it now seems that the scars have finally healed: Juventus is back for good!

As it so often happens in football, and life in general for that matter, where there is love there is also hatred. But even its biggest sworn enemy must agree that Juve is a massive club, a true giant of The Beautiful Game. After all, its track record speaks for itself.

Prima Donna

Owned by the mega-rich Agnelli family since 1923, the Turin-based outfit has won an Italian record 50 titles overall spanning almost a century – from their first Scudetto in 1905 to their fourth Supercoppa in 2003. In the mean time, of course, La Vecchia Signora evolved into the most successful side in both the Serie A and the Coppa: they boast an impressive 27 league triumphs (despite their five titles in the last six seasons, Internazionale lie a distant second on 18) and another nine domestic Cups, a performance only matched by Roma.

Together with Inter and Liverpool, also three-times winners, Juventus have also been the most successful performers in what is now the Europa League and in 1985, under the mythical Giovanni Trapattoni, they became the first side in football history to have claimed all four UEFA club competitions as well as the European - South American Cup, a feat repeated only by Ajax Amsterdam seven years later.

Crash Landing

However, what goes up must come down – and Juve came crashing down to earth. In the summer of 2006, at just about the same time the national side (featuring five Bianconeri and led by their former boss Marcello Lippi) was claiming the World Cup in Germany, Juventus were stripped of two consecutive Campionato titles and relegated to Serie B for the first (and only to date) time in their history. Nonetheless, under the guidance of ex-midfield maestro Didier Deschamps and steered by the emblematic duo of Alex Del Piero & Gigi Buffon, they managed to overcome an additional 9-point penalty and secure the title, as well as their immediate return to the top flight.

With Deschamps gone before the end of that ’06-’07 campaign, the experienced Claudio Ranieri seemed to have put The Old Lady right back on track, but good impressions were short-lived. Ciro Ferrara, Alberto Zaccheroni and Gigi Delneri all came and went within a disappointing two-year period – Juventus managed nothing more remarkable than a seventh-place finish in the league or a quarterfinal in the domestic cup.

Glory Days Revisited

And then came Antonio Conte. Just five years into his new career as a coach and having led both Bari and Siena to Serie A promotion, the 42-year-old former Bianconero returned to his beloved club to bring back the glory days – and that’s exactly what he’s doing. Despite Sunday’s setback at home against Cagliari (1-1), Juventus are not only enjoying the view from the top of the league table just before the halfway mark, but they are also undefeated in no fewer than 19 matches this season, 18 of them in the top flight. Throughout their history they have never managed to remain unbeaten in the whole of a Serie A campaign – they lost just one game (3-0 at Lazio) in their championship-winning 1977-’78 season. They expanded that run to ’78-’79 to establish their overall record of 29 straight league matches without defeat and you’d have to travel even further back in time to find that they had also gone 28 games unbeaten in a single campaign (1949-’50). The Turin giants can still break all of those records within a matter of months. But how has this happened?

The Secrets to Success

Having lifted no less than 15 trophies for the club as an invaluable midfielder, Conte knew that he would have to inject the squad with the right kind of players, individuals born and bred with the mentality of champions. Some of the old guard were either offloaded (Hasan Salihamidžić, Tiago, Zdeněk Grygera) or sold (Momo Sissoko, Sergio Almirón, Sebastian Giovinco, Felipe Melo), whereas the USD 110 million spent this year have indeed pumped new blood into the team’s veins. In front of Buffon, Swiss international Stephan Lichsteiner ideally completes the back four alongside Giorgio Chiellini, Leonardo Bonucci and Andrea Barzagli. Up front, Mirko Vučinić, probably the best Montenegrin footballer since the imperial Dejan Savićević, has formed a lethal triad together with Simone Pepe and Alessandro Matri. New acquisitions Eljero Elia and Marco Borriello are already pushing hard for their place – and there’s always Miloš Krasić, Fabio Quagliarella and a certain Del Piero...

Last and certainly not least, the midfield. In a 4-3-3 formation, which easily transforms into 4-4-2 (with Pepe stepping back a few metres on the right flank and Claudio Marchisio gaining a few more down the left), those playing in the heart of the field are the ones who set the pace. And Conte is fortunate enough to be able to rely on the unique Andrea Pirlo and the outstanding Arturo Vidal – the Chilean international was brought in from Bayer Leverkusen for 13.5 million, Pirlo left Milan for free...

Scudetto There for the Taking

The aura of their newly-built 41,000-seater ground has certainly added to the sense of a fresh start, while at the same time Juventus take advantage of their competitors’ problems. Reigning champions Milan are an ageing side, despite the best efforts of the younger Kevin-Prince Boateng and Antonio Nocerino. And Internazionale, perhaps saturated after winning it all in recent years and certainly wounded by the managerial merry-go-round since the departure of José Mourinho, have only recently picked up momentum under Ranieri. Lazio and Roma are not consistent enough to challenge for the scudetto, Napoli are paying the price domestically for their Champions League exploits and Udinese lack the expertise needed.

And it gets even better: with the exception of Milan, all of the aforementioned sides will be visiting Turin in the second half of the Campionato, having failed to beat Juventus at home. It all looks like come May the wait will be finally over for The Old Lady. Conte and his charges have already done most of the hard work and the 28th Serie A title is really theirs to lose.