Rome - Two games in four days are likely to decide the course of the season for Juventus as Italy's most successful club struggles to regain their powerhouse status. Although president Jean-Claude Blanc stated that the club will stick with greenhorn coach and former star defender Ciro Ferrara, his statement could be reconsidered should Juve continue their current bad run with further crashes against Inter Milan and Bayern Munich.
There were good omens for Juve at the start of the season, with four straight wins that seemed to prove the effectiveness of a shopping campaign worth 52 million euros (78 million dollars).
But things gradually worsened in the following weeks and came to a grinding halt with the recent 2-0 defeats against French side Bordeaux and Cagliari.
Brazil's international midfielders Diego and Felipe Melo, whose transfers from Werder Bremen and Fiorentina cost close to 50 million euros, have not lived up to their fame, partly due to injuries, but also because they have played far below par.
Not much help came from veterans Fabio Cannavaro and Fabio Grosso in a defence package that has more relied heavily on the crucial saves of star Gianluigi Buffon.
A home game to leaders Inter Milan on Saturday looks like Juve's last chance to have a say in the Serie A season as they lag eight points adrift of the reigning champions.
Things look a little rosier in the Champions League, where qualification to the knock-out stage depends on notching at least one point next week against Bayern to retain second place.
After the low-key years that followed the 2006 relegation to the Serie B for the club's involvement in a corruption scandal, fans felt this was the season of Juve's comeback and revenge for the two titles stripped in the match-fixing trial.
The 2-0 drubbing in Cagliari made clear that one more season of sufferance is more than likely as Ferrara has been unable to bring grit and a definite idea of game for his team.
Despite the good players they can field, Juve often produce a slow, spiritless and sterile game that yields plenty of chances to any opponent.
"You talk about the scudetto, but play without honour," said a banner that fans hanged at the team's training camp on Tuesday.
A year ago, under the then fired Claudio Ranieri, Juve were six points behind Inter and better off in Europe, with two prestigious wins over Spain's giants Real Madrid.
As usual, the coach takes the heat during a crisis, but Ferrara, 42, found support not only from his former team mate Cannavaro, saying that "everybody makes mistakes, not only the coach," but also from England's national team selector Fabio Capello, who coached Ferrara at Juve.
Capello on Tuesday told daily Tuttosport that Juve and Ferrara deserve confidence, noting that "Juve have strengthened themselves, but they need time to mature."
As fans hope that the maturing process won't last much longer, the firing of Ferrara could be prevented by a rumoured plan by the Turin club to bring back Marcello Lippi after he closes his stint with the Azzurri after trying to defend the 2006 title at next summer's World Cup.
Although just a rumour, it could be hard to find a coach willing to take over a bench that could already be destined to a world-champion colleague.
