Young old lady rises

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Juventus are once again back in the elite group after their triumphant Serie A season. Antonio Conte’s men have finally overcome the horror of the 2005 match-fixing scandal

At the end of last season, the Gazzetta dello Sport writer Alessandra Bocci remarked: “Serie A is a tournament in which various teams compete.

Then at the end Zlatan Ibrahimovic wins.” It looked like Bocci’s quip might turn out to be more prophetic than he thought when AC Milan galloped into a lead, courtesy Zlatan’s goals at crucial junctures. Indeed, the tall Swede had won the winner’s medal in eight seasons prior to this one with different clubs.

But Juventus, and their shrewd young manager Antonio Conte showed an utter disregard for records and prophecies as their boundless vigour and shrewd operators went through the season as the Italian Invincibles, not losing a single game out of the 38 matches they played in the season.

Conte arrived at a Juventus eager to rebuild after the fiasco of Calciopoli. Having just moved into the imposing new Juventus Stadium, Turin’s hopes now rested on the former Juve midfielder and his tactical nous.

But even so, winning the Scudetto would’ve been a distant dream at the beginning of the season.

However, with some outstanding transfer business over last summer; during which they picked up the mercurial Andrea Pirlo (free transfer from AC Milan), Mirko Vucinic (AS Roma) and Arturo Vidal (Bayer Leverkusen); Juventus put themselves on course for what would be an engrossing battle for top spot with Milan which would be resolved after the penultimate game of the season.

Andrea Pirlo, in particular, had a renaissance season of sorts as he led the league with 13 godly assists, some of which were jaw droppingly outstanding.

It was a remarkable transfer, with his former club Milan having ironically decided that his best days were behind him.

Conte showed a willingness to be inventive and adaptive, as he disregarded his preferred 4-2-4 formation for a more fluid 4-3-3 and subsequently a 3-5-2, which got the best out of his players.

With Stephan Lichtsteiner the only addition to a backline which conceded 47 goals last season, Conte proved that a little organisation and belief was required to make his defence the stingiest in the last in 2011-12, with 19 goals against them, 13 fewer than the next best.

The gleaming red cherry on top of a glistening cake would have been a double, but Juve lost to Napoli in the Italian Cup final.

The road ahead promises to be an intriguing one for supporters of the Old Lady. With the departure of their legendary captain Alessandro del Piero, they have some gigantic shoes which need to be filled.

Defending the title could be extremely difficult, especially with the added responsibility of the Champions League this time around, but Conte’s men have shown they have what it takes to be true champions.