When Andrea Pirlo was appointed as manager of Juventus in August 2020, did he see his sacking coming in less than a year?

"Thank you, Andrea. These are the first words that all of us need to say at the end of this special experience together," said "The Old Lady" in a statement on Friday.

Back in 2011 summer, Pirlo joined Juventus as a free agent. In the following four season he played for the club, Juventus won all four titles of Serie A and they would stay in the throne for another five seasons. It's safe to say that Pirlo's arrival put the team on a glorious nine-straight-championship trip.

10 years later, Pirlo became the one who put an end to the glories, watching their worst enemy Inter Milan celebrate with the 19th Serie A title.

To be fair, Juventus did not finish the 2020-21 season empty-handed – they won the championships of Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana. However, those two trophies could not cover the fact that the club just had a very disappointing season and Pirlo is still far away from coaching a top team in Europe.

Though he was one of the most-talented midfielders in the world as a player, Pirlo did not bring that magic to his manager position. Juventus under him lack smart or well-designed tactics. Instead, they often have to rely on individual genius of Cristiano Ronaldo or Federico Chiesa to win.

As a result, Benevento Calcio, which were just promoted to Serie A this season, beat Juventus at Juventus Stadium; Atalanta defeated Juventus for the first time in Serie A in 20 years; the club's nine-straight-home-win trend against AC Milan ended; Juventus even suffered two 3-0 home losses.

However, it must be pointed out that Juventus announced Pirlo as their new manager less than 24 hours after they fired Maurizio Sarri. Moreover, Pirlo only became the manager of Serie C team Juventus U23 nine days ago before that.

That did not seem a well-calculated decision, not to mention wise. Nonetheless, how many wise decisions have Juventus made since Giuseppe Marotta left their CEO & general manager position?

They landed multiple players like Aaron Ramsey, Adrien Rabiot and Arthur Melo whose high salaries and disappointing performance cost Juventus both on the financial sheet and on the field. Even if there were a manager who could turn things right despite such poor choices of player introduction, it won't be rookie Pirlo.

Juventus brought back Massimiliano Allegri, who was in charge between 2014 and 2019 before being replaced by Sarri, and released the announcement less than 24 hours after Pirlo's sacking. Will it break the vicious circle or add another part of it?