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Juventus return to Serie A half intact
MILAN, May 19 (Reuters) - Juventus winning immediate promotion back to Italy's top-flight was the easy part of their punishment for match-fixing.
Becoming the great force they once were at home and in Europe will take more time.
Serie B is surprisingly weak and even a nine-point penalty failed to halt Juve's promotion with three games to spare on Saturday.
Didier Deschamps has managed the side with dignity, never degrading the standard of opposition but remaining ruthlessly focused on returning to Serie A straight away.
The former France captain has been rewarded for practically begging to coach the side when few others wanted to know the club after they were demoted following the biggest scandal to hit Italian football.
Juve were stripped of their 2005 and 2006 titles and deducted 30 points in Serie B, later cut to 17, after former general manager Luciano Moggi and others were found guilty of securing favourable referees and further illicit activities.
Deschamps, a World Cup winner who also helped Juventus to European Cup glory in 1996, did not feel managing in Serie B was below him despite his achievements in coaching Monaco to the Champions League final in 2004.
His first task, after Fabio Capello made a quick exit to Real Madrid, was to convince some of Juve's top players that it was worthwhile sticking around.
Patrick Vieira and Zlatan Ibrahimovic dashed off to Inter Milan, Fabio Cannavaro and Emerson followed Capello to Real while Lilian Thuram and Gianluca Zambrotta went to Barcelona.
Alessandro Del Piero, Juventus through and through, was always going to remain but Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, international team mate Mauro Camoranesi, France striker David Trezeguet and Czech Pavel Nedved surprisingly stayed put.
The club were on the move though.
Players and fans had long bemoaned the Stadio delle Alpi for a poor atmosphere and the already-planned switch to the smaller Stadio Olimpico meant the team could play in a more intimate stadium where the lower Serie B crowds would be less noticeable.
Juve made a steady start but fresh momentum came in November when their points deduction was further cut to nine on appeal.
They never looked back and easily secured promotion but it is now that the real work begins.
"I think that 2008 we need to be realistic. It will be a complicated year. For now the scudetto is a utopia," Deschamps said recently.
Plans are afoot to redevelop the delle Alpi but rebuilding on the pitch is also needed if they are to reassert their place in the Italian and European game.
The defence will be bulked up with Jean Alain Boumsong, who endured a nightmare spell at Newcastle United, even looking shaky in Serie B. Germany's Torsten Frings has already turned the club down though.
Buffon's future is also in doubt while Trezeguet and Camoranesi could leave despite the promotion.
Deschamps has been coy about his own position with some fans seeing him as a Serie B coach. He has the backing of Juventus directors though and deep down he must be relishing the chance to complete the club's rehabilitation in the top division.
"I don't think about the future, the only objective has been Serie A," he said.
Reuters