Juventus fired coach Claudio Ranieri on Monday and replaced him with junior team coach and former player Ciro Ferrara, the club said in a statement.
Ranieri’s future had long been the source of speculation and two weeks ago Italian media had reported that he would definitely be fired at the end of the season, and sooner still if Juve lost to AC Milan.
Juve battled to a credible 1-1 draw at the San Siro just over a week ago, but Sunday’s 2-2 home draw against Atalanta meant they have now gone seven league matches without a win.
PHOTO: AP
They sit third in the table again, but seven matches ago they were Inter Milan’s closest title challengers and now they face a fight to hold onto a top-three finish with fourth-placed Fiorentina just one point behind with two matches to play.
A fourth place finish would mean they would have two qualifying rounds to reach the Champions League group stages.
General manager Jean Claude Blanc, who a month ago had announced Ranieri would still be Juve manager next season, said the club had to act.
“It’s the standings which have changed. They [the players] must absolutely start doing things differently and as of tonight Cira Ferrara will be pushing them,” he said.
Former center-back Ferrara, 42, was a long-time Juve stalwart and played more than 250 matches for the club from 1994 to 2005.
He won the Serie A title eight times during a 20-year career, but the last of those with Juve in 2005 was annulled because of the calciopoli match-fixing scandal.
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