The old Lady of Turin aka Juventus Football club is one of the most famous and successful football clubs in Italy after the two Milan giants.
But in recent years, in fact after the italian football’s bribery scandal and Juve’s subsequent relegation to the Italian Serie B, the club hasn’t really reached the dizzy heights it once enjoyed.
Althogh they secured promotion to the top flight in just one year but so far have struggled to disturb the established order in Italian Serie A.
Even this season they are struggling at the 7th position in the table and have almost no chance of making it to the champions league next season as Milan, Inter, Roma, Udinese, Lazio and Napoli all lie above them in the table and have been playing
far better football.
When Luigi Del Neri was appointed as the manager of the Bianconerri it was thought they might finally be able to break free from the shackles and challenge for the title this season but it hasn’t happened and there are clouds hovering above his managerial
career.
While the media speculates that the manager will be shown the door in near future his club insists that the Italian will remain in charge until the end of the season.
Del Neri joined the club in summer last year and is contracted until June 2012.
Despite the club insisting that the manager will stay on, Manchester City’s under pressure manager, Roberto Mancini has been heavily linked with a return to Italy and a job with the club in Turin.
But all that can change if Mancini is able to land the first ever trophy for his club in 35 years by winning the FA Cup.
Manchester City progressed to the finals of the oldest competition in football by beating their bitter rivals, Manchester United by one goal to nil and have a real chance of winning the final at Wembley on May the 14th against Stoke City, who
themsleves progressed to the final against all odds by thrashing Bolton Wanderers FC 5-0 in the semi final last week.
“Del Neri has one year left in his contract but it’s evident that at the end of the season we will evaluate many things, We recognise Del Neri’s merits and we will evaluate the coach’s situation at the right time, in the next couple of weeks. We will consider
his professionalism, the work he has done and the problems he has had to deal with this campaign.” said Juve general director Giuseppe Marotta.
The club from Turin has been plagued by injuries this season nad has failed to perfrom consistently this season and are currently trailing the 4th placed Lazio by 8 points with only 5 games remaining in the season.
With only 4 teams qualifying for the Champion League, Juve have no chance of making it into the continent’s elite competition and hence the manager is under severe pressure.
The club on the other hand also insist that there have been no talks with Mancini’s agent over a possible managerial job in Turin.
Reports emerged in the media about Mancini being the club’s top target and that there had already been contact between the managers agent and a club representative but Juve General manager Giuseppe Marotta claims that is not true.
“I met Giorgio De Giorgis (Mancini’s agent), but we just chatted about football in general, Even about Roberto Mancini? No, Mancini has a contract with City and we talked with De Giorgis about players.”