Juventus have turned to former player Antonio Conte as they look to bring an end to some disappointing days in Serie A, and the former midfield enforcer could well take them back to the promised land.
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As a player, Antonio Conte was a winner, one of the driving forces of Juventus during one of the finest periods in their history.
Conte won five Serie A titles, as well as the Champions League in 1996, and was the kind of player that becomes a legend at a club. Combative and mentally strong, the kind of obvious trier that fans love and that players appreciate. The saying goes that players like Conte become better managers than those who are blessed with more flair. The stars can neither motivate nor appreciate deficiencies in others. It's the yeomen that you want.
Conte now gets his chance. It is to him that Juve have turned after Luigi Delneri's predictably awful spell in charge, and with their new stadium opening soon, and a couple of decent signings in the bag, Conte will hope that he can ride a tide of goodwill and make a realistic challenge for the title.
Punters on Betfair seem unconvinced. Juventus are 7.6 to win the title, and are likely to be available at just over the even money mark in a market without the two Milan clubs.
The big plus point for Juventus is that they don't have to worry about any distraction provided by European football. For them this season it's the League, the Cup and nothing else, and so their squad won't be as stretched as the other contenders.
Milan's squad of old boys are revelling in their title win but surely not at the start of an era of dominance. Inter have seemingly downgraded expectations with the appointment of Gianpiero Gasperini. Napoli are a coming force, but one which will have to learn to cope with a Champions League campaign. And Roma seem certain to drown in a sea of dressing room egos with which a young manager will struggle to cope. And so you can see why Juventus are as short as they are for this season's Scudetto. Once more it's there to be won.
The quality that Conte must instil is the one for which Juve were once famous: consistency. After losing two of their opening four Serie A fixtures last season they went unbeaten until January. There were far too many draws, but there was a solidity about them which had taken them into fourth place. Turn a few of those draws into wins, you thought, and they wouldn't be far off challenging for the title.
They then came back from the winter break and lost. And lost again. And a run of five defeats in seven games from the end of January to the beginning of March saw them sink down the table. They, and Delneri, never recovered. Injuries played a part, but then they always do, and the most worrying thing for Juve fans was that you never knew which team would turn up. And you never used to say that about Juve.
Andrea Pirlo will be the man that Conte will rely on to try and get the old Juventus back, the midfield rock on which he'll try and build. Pirlo won't be spectacular, but then he never was, and he will give them a precision that they've been lacking in the centre of midfield. I wouldn't worry too much about Pirlo's legs, as there's plenty of energy around him: the new man from Napoli Michele Pazienza, as well as Claudio Marchisio, and Simone Pepe. And there'll be a midfield enforcer in the shape of the Chilean Arturo Vidal.
Conte is famous for playing a 4-2-4 formation, with wingers charging forward in support of two strikers, and the plan will be for Pirlo to sit and provide for Milos Krasic, Mirko Vucinic, and even Stephan Lichsteiner and Reto Ziegler, whose arrivals might be more significant that it looks. The new Juve will be about hard work and pace, and both of those fit the bill.
And at the head of a team that can boast one of the best goalkeepers in the world, a slightly suspect defence, and a forward thinking midfield, is a list of strikers that will be the envy of many coaches in Serie A. As well as Vucinic, there's a squad which contains Fabio Quagliarella, Alessandro Matri, Luca Toni, and of course Alessandro Del Piero. Matri in particular is a player that I really like, and if Milos Krasic and Marchisio can provide from wide areas, then he will score a lot of goals.
There has to be a question about whether a coach who has only achieved success in Serie B can do it at the top level, but then again Conte knows the club intimately, and understands what makes Juve tick. Unlike the old days, they'll be fun to watch, and could well be one of those teams to latch onto in the over 2.5 goals market early in the season before others do.
I've happily written Juve off for the past few seasons on the grounds that they've been heavily overrated, but they won't be on my joke list this year. The lack of distractions and some good acquisitions means that they'll improve on the seventh placed finishes of the last two seasons, but whether they'll be good enough to go all the way and justify that quote of 7.6? The jury's out, but the new dawn in Turin might just be breaking.
Another season, another new dawn for Juventus.
