A Trio of Signings for Juventus

By: Martha | January 28th, 2008

Oh, Claudio. It’s not often that a newly promoted side finds itself firmly in a Champions League spot at the start of the second half of the season, but then newly promoted sides are rarely Juventus, relegated after the 2005-2006 season as punishment for the Calciopoli scandal in Italian football. Despite a small exodus, names like Gigi Buffon, Alex Del Piero, Pavel Nedved and David Trezeguet hung around to win the Serie B title and bounce right back up to the top level.

10 points off the pace currently being set by leaders Inter Milan, Juve may not be going to win anything this season — coach Claudio Ranieri has officially declared their Scudetto dreams dead — but they’re certainly not sitting around, waiting for those around them to slip up: The club have already announced two signings today and, according to the Italian press, will add a third before the the close of business.

First on the list is defender Guglielmo Stendardo, who is joining Juve on loan from Lazio, where he’s been on the outs since a very public shouting match with coach Delio Rossi last month. Juventus are without two defensive starters due to injury (and, depending on the day, their full-strength back line is sometimes suspect anyway), so Stendardo is expected to go right into the side for the midweek Coppa Italia match against the dreaded Inter.

In addition to Stendardo, Juventus are also adding a pair of players from English clubs: Aston Villa defender Olof Mellberg, who Juve have been chasing since last summer, will join the Old Lady in June, and Liverpool’s Momo Sissoko was in Turin to make things official over the weekend; that announcement (supposedly) will come later today, and the midfielder will join Juve (for a small fee of €13 million) as soon as Mali go out of the African Cup of Nations. (Oh, and they’ve finally gotten rid of Jean-Alain Boumsong, a move that can’t help but improve the team.)

Juve may be too far behind to win the Scudetto this season, but Ranieri is well on his way to building a team that can not only handle playing on three fronts next season (having just been promoted, Juve aren’t playing in Europe right now), but also will challenge for the title in 2008-2009.