Juventus’ dominance of Italian football came to an end last week… now the Old Lady’s entire world is at risk of crashing down.
Not only is failure to qualify for next season’s Champions League a real possibility but they may not even be playing in the top flight.
That’s because they’ve been threatened with expulsion from Serie A if they remain committed to the European Super League, with Juve, Real Madrid and Barcelona the only three sides left tied to the attempted breakaway.
It would mean they’d start the 2021/22 season in Serie B, although the club have been there before.
Cast your mind back to 2006, when Juventus were relegated to Serie B for their involvement in a match-fixing scandal which sent shockwaves across Italian football.
Juve went straight back up to the top flight at the first attempt, winning the Serie B title, but a number of their stars weren’t willing to play in the second tier for a year and duly left the club.
Juventus’ summer of 2006 exodus – who left?
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter Milan)
Emerson (Real Madrid)
Gianluca Zambrotta (Barcelona)
Patrick Vieira (Inter Milan)
Adrian Mutu (Fiorentina)
Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid)
Lilian Thuram (Barcelona)
If Juve do indeed get kicked out of Serie A you can be very safe in assuming that history repeats itself.
Alvaro Morata, Giorgio Chiellini and Carlo Pinsoglio are all out of contract this summer, while Gianluigi Buffon has confirmed he will not be signing a new deal.
A number of their other stars will surely be more than willing to jump ship.
Can you really imagine Cristiano Ronaldo in Serie B? Fabrizio Romano certainly can’t.
The Portuguese superstar’s contract expires in 2022, as do Paulo Dybala, Federico Chiesa and Federico Bernadeschi’s deals. Relegation to Serie B would certainly give the players the upper hand in any attempt to leave the club.
Aaron Ramsey has been linked with a return to the Premier League – with Arsenal and Everton linked – and this summer would be as good a time as ever to let the Welshman leave.
Meanwhile, Dutch centre-back Matthijs De Ligt will not fancy the prospect of not playing at the very top level.
Losing any of their big-name players would be a huge additional blow to Juventus if the unthinkable happens, but frankly none of their players’ futures can be guaranteed if they stay in the Super League and the Italian FA follow through with their threat.
And if it happens, clubs in the Premier League would surely be put on red alert with a host of top talent likely to be looking for new homes.