ALMOST EVERYTHING has been different about Juventus this season. Different ground. The cavernous Delle Alpi has been swapped for the more intimate Olympic Stadium, which holds one third as many.
Different league. For the first time in their history, Juve tasted Serie B, following relegation for their role in Italy's "Calciopoli" scandal last year.
So what has remained the same? A fair chunk of the cast who helped Juve to the Serie A crown (which was later revoked) last season: Alex Del Piero, Pavel Nedved, David Trezeguet, Gigi Buffon, Mauro Camoranesi... all of them decided to stick around in Serie B. Plus, of course, the fact that Juve are - predictably (though that word has a different meaning these days compared to the last few seasons) - firmly in first place.
It's hard to overstate the blow a year in purgatory has had on the pysche of Italy's most patrician and successful club.
The owners pledged to start from scratch while severing all ties with the previous regime, in particular former chief executive Antonio Giraudo and former sporting director Luciano Moggi, the architects of the web of influence which was unmasked by the Calciopoli scandal.
Yet making a clean break was always going to be difficult, particularly when the club had to do it largely without the influence of the Agnelli family, the long-time owners and Italy's de facto royal family.
Gianni Agnelli, the legendary patriarch, passed away in 2003, his brother, Umberto, followed a year later. Both had viewed Moggi and Giraudo as necessary evils (Gianni, in particular was careful never to allow himself to be photographed alongside Moggi)
and many Juve supporters still cling to the notion that, had they been in good health late in life, they would have stopped the Giraudo-Moggi gang a long time ago.
The problem was that the next generation of Agnellis was hit by tragedy. Gianni's son, Edoardo, committed suicide in 2000, after a wayward life which saw him flirt with drugs. Umberto's son, Giovannino, was struck down by a rare disease in 1997.
And so the elder Agnellis hung on in the hope that their grandchildren, the third generation, could take the reins. John Elkann, now thirty-one, was groomed to take over Fiat, the family company, while his younger brother, Lapo, 29, was expected to look after Juventus.
Alas, in October 2005, police were called to the home of a well-known Turinese transvestite: Lapo had suffered an overdose after taking a mix of heroin, opiates and cocaine.
After a spell in rehab, he has since returned to the scene, but his absence led to a vacuum at the helm of the club for which Juve are still paying the price.
True, they romped through Serie B as expected and would have wrapped up automatic promotion by early May had it not been for the nine point penalty, but all season long there were signs of unrest. Buffon, who pledged to stay another year to help Juve back up but wouldn't be drawn on his future, was linked all season long to a variety of moves and could yet go elsewhere. Camoranesi and Trezeguet sulked their way through the campaign and their future remains a big question mark. And then, in the last month or so, came the Deschamps bomb.
The French manager, who starred for Juve in the mid-1990s, agreed to take the job last summer, hoping to be part of the club's rebirth. But achieving his objective brought him little credit. In the eyes of many, Sam Allardyce's bluetooth earpiece could have managed Juve this season and they would have still gone up. Which, in turn, meant that he had very little leverage with the club when it came to planning for next season.
Juventus offered him a paltry £100,000 pay rise (he wanted five times that, plus a deal through 2010).
More importantly, they effectively shut him out of all their transfer planning. Sporting director Alessio Secco and former striker Roberto Bettega, now a consultant, would be deciding who came and who went.
As a result, Deschamps grumbled more or less openly and privately solicited interest from elsewhere, most notably from Marseille (where he grew up) and Lyon (where Gerard Houllier was recently shown the door).
Things came to breaking point on Thursday night at an emergency meeting between Deschamps and the club. He wasn't given the assurances he asked for and, on Friday night, he rang Secco announcing his resignation (though he is expected to stick around for the remainder of the season).
This raised the ire of Juve's ultras who were very vocal in their support of Deschamps at yesterday's:confused2 match against Mantova. But the die had been cast.
Juve will now look elsewhere, to a cast of candidates which range from the daring (Cagliari's Mourinho-in-waiting, Marco Giampaolo), to the pedestrian (Sampdoria's Walter Novellino), to the nostalgic (Gianluca Vialli) to the sensational (Marcello Lippi, who would be in his third tour of duty at the club).
The uncertainty is likely to mute the enthusiasm for the return to Serie A. Already, the supporters view the year in B as a kind of penance. When the club suggested celebrating promotion with an open-top bus parade, there was a veritable insurrection from the fans, who said there was "nothing to celebrate".
As they see it, time has been served, 2006-07 is a year to forget. Apart from a few bright spots - the emergence of youngsters Raffaele Palladino and Matteo Paro - there is nothing to be happy about.
Juve will return for real next August, when the Serie A campaign kicks off. The fear, however, is that nothing will ever be the same again.
By Gabriele Marcotti
Different league. For the first time in their history, Juve tasted Serie B, following relegation for their role in Italy's "Calciopoli" scandal last year.
So what has remained the same? A fair chunk of the cast who helped Juve to the Serie A crown (which was later revoked) last season: Alex Del Piero, Pavel Nedved, David Trezeguet, Gigi Buffon, Mauro Camoranesi... all of them decided to stick around in Serie B. Plus, of course, the fact that Juve are - predictably (though that word has a different meaning these days compared to the last few seasons) - firmly in first place.
It's hard to overstate the blow a year in purgatory has had on the pysche of Italy's most patrician and successful club.
The owners pledged to start from scratch while severing all ties with the previous regime, in particular former chief executive Antonio Giraudo and former sporting director Luciano Moggi, the architects of the web of influence which was unmasked by the Calciopoli scandal.
Yet making a clean break was always going to be difficult, particularly when the club had to do it largely without the influence of the Agnelli family, the long-time owners and Italy's de facto royal family.
Gianni Agnelli, the legendary patriarch, passed away in 2003, his brother, Umberto, followed a year later. Both had viewed Moggi and Giraudo as necessary evils (Gianni, in particular was careful never to allow himself to be photographed alongside Moggi)
and many Juve supporters still cling to the notion that, had they been in good health late in life, they would have stopped the Giraudo-Moggi gang a long time ago.The problem was that the next generation of Agnellis was hit by tragedy. Gianni's son, Edoardo, committed suicide in 2000, after a wayward life which saw him flirt with drugs. Umberto's son, Giovannino, was struck down by a rare disease in 1997.
And so the elder Agnellis hung on in the hope that their grandchildren, the third generation, could take the reins. John Elkann, now thirty-one, was groomed to take over Fiat, the family company, while his younger brother, Lapo, 29, was expected to look after Juventus.
Alas, in October 2005, police were called to the home of a well-known Turinese transvestite: Lapo had suffered an overdose after taking a mix of heroin, opiates and cocaine.
After a spell in rehab, he has since returned to the scene, but his absence led to a vacuum at the helm of the club for which Juve are still paying the price.
True, they romped through Serie B as expected and would have wrapped up automatic promotion by early May had it not been for the nine point penalty, but all season long there were signs of unrest. Buffon, who pledged to stay another year to help Juve back up but wouldn't be drawn on his future, was linked all season long to a variety of moves and could yet go elsewhere. Camoranesi and Trezeguet sulked their way through the campaign and their future remains a big question mark. And then, in the last month or so, came the Deschamps bomb.
The French manager, who starred for Juve in the mid-1990s, agreed to take the job last summer, hoping to be part of the club's rebirth. But achieving his objective brought him little credit. In the eyes of many, Sam Allardyce's bluetooth earpiece could have managed Juve this season and they would have still gone up. Which, in turn, meant that he had very little leverage with the club when it came to planning for next season.
Juventus offered him a paltry £100,000 pay rise (he wanted five times that, plus a deal through 2010).
More importantly, they effectively shut him out of all their transfer planning. Sporting director Alessio Secco and former striker Roberto Bettega, now a consultant, would be deciding who came and who went.
As a result, Deschamps grumbled more or less openly and privately solicited interest from elsewhere, most notably from Marseille (where he grew up) and Lyon (where Gerard Houllier was recently shown the door).
Things came to breaking point on Thursday night at an emergency meeting between Deschamps and the club. He wasn't given the assurances he asked for and, on Friday night, he rang Secco announcing his resignation (though he is expected to stick around for the remainder of the season).
This raised the ire of Juve's ultras who were very vocal in their support of Deschamps at yesterday's:confused2 match against Mantova. But the die had been cast.
Juve will now look elsewhere, to a cast of candidates which range from the daring (Cagliari's Mourinho-in-waiting, Marco Giampaolo), to the pedestrian (Sampdoria's Walter Novellino), to the nostalgic (Gianluca Vialli) to the sensational (Marcello Lippi, who would be in his third tour of duty at the club).
The uncertainty is likely to mute the enthusiasm for the return to Serie A. Already, the supporters view the year in B as a kind of penance. When the club suggested celebrating promotion with an open-top bus parade, there was a veritable insurrection from the fans, who said there was "nothing to celebrate".
As they see it, time has been served, 2006-07 is a year to forget. Apart from a few bright spots - the emergence of youngsters Raffaele Palladino and Matteo Paro - there is nothing to be happy about.
Juve will return for real next August, when the Serie A campaign kicks off. The fear, however, is that nothing will ever be the same again.
By Gabriele Marcotti
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The club wanted to have a puppet that is doing well his job, and not a manager with personality who wants to participate actively to his job without recaiving dictations. He did very well he left 
