The 'Old Lady' Juventus has re-appointed Massimiliano Allegri as manager following the sacking of Andrea Pirlo.
According to Sky in Italy, Allegri is returning to the club where he won several trophies on a €9m (£7.7m)-a-year deal for a two years. The appointment comes following the dismissal of Pirlo earlier on Friday, with the 42-year-old having overseen Juve missing out on the Italian top-flight title for the first time in 10 years.
The 53-year-old guided Juve to two Champions League finals, he also won four Coppa Italia trophies between 2014 and 2019 and departed that summer after a fifth straight Serie A triumph.
"We said goodbye two years ago with the message, "History Alone", the message on the back of the shirt given to Massimiliano Allegri by President Andrea Agnelli with an embrace and a shirt, on which in just two words encapsulated Allegri's experience at Juve.
"The beauty of the story, however, is that it never stops. And in football, this means a concept that we have ingrained in our DNA: the best victory is the next one. Always.
"And now we are ready to begin again with Allegri, to build our future together; with his enormous professionalism, his moral strength, with the brilliant ideas of a coach capable of shuffling the cards, both on and off the pitch. With his smile, a sort of "signature". With his way of understanding football and life with simplicity, with his desire to play things down and with the commitment to enjoy every beautiful moment that being at Juventus can give and will give.
Allegri's predecessor Pirlo, who took over from Maurizio Sarri in August last year, guided Juve to the Coppa Italia and Suppercoppa Italiana but they finished fourth in Serie A, and they salvaged a spot in next season's Champions League on the final day of the season.
Juve issued the following message to Pirlo upon his departure from the club: "Thank you, Andrea.
"These are the first words that all of us need to say at the end of this special experience together. A few months ago, Andrea Pirlo, an icon of world football, began his new adventure, his first as a coach.
"To do this, first of all, it takes courage, as well as awareness of one's own means, especially in a period marked by thousands of difficulties, with the world forced by the pandemic to reinvent its own rules day after day.
"Pirlo has just begun the first steps of what will no doubt become a brilliant career as a coach. An adventure of transformation, seeking, and often managing, to bring his ideas and his experience as a champion on the pitch from the "other side" of the fence.
"And since in football, what counts are the victories, let's remember them: in the space of a few short months Pirlo's Juve has raised two trophies: The Italian Supercup and the Coppa Italia. And he, as coach, brought home brilliant victories on the most prestigious of fields, from San Siro to Camp Nou.