What looked like the start of a new dawn with the stunning €100 million transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo in the summer turned into the end of an era with Massimiliano Allegri announcing his departure from Turin at the end of the season.
Allegri again delivered the Scudetto - his fifth in a row and the club's eight on the trot in total - and Juventus did it with relative ease this time compared to last season. There were simply no challengers to their dominance in Serie A.
It was in the Champions League again that Juve and Allegri fell short but this time it wasn't to a current European powerhouse like Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich - it came at the hands of a young Ajax side who made the Old Lady look every bit of her age.
The advancing years of the squad is something that will need to be addressed in the summer. Ronaldo continues to perform miraculous feats even at 34 years old. The Portuguese superstar hasn't hit the ridiculous numbers in terms of goals that he has produced in previous years but he has immediately established himself as a leader and talisman at his new club. His stunning hat-trick to turn around a two goal deficit against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League was arguably the highlight of the season for Juventus despite their eventual failure in that competition.
The Atletico second leg was certainly Juve's best performance of the season because they played aggressive, high pressing, attacking football. However, it seems that Allegri's men only play that way when they are forced to. All of those characteristics were missing for the vast majority of the Serie A campaign where the Bianconeri often and typically ground out results using a much more pragmatic approach. They tried the same methods against Ajax and were completely outplayed - eventually running out of ideas when they realised that Ronaldo wasn't going to bail them out again.
Despite 11 trophies and having more wins than any other manager in the top five leagues over the last 5 seasons, it was Allegri's style of play and failure to deliver the Champions League that brought about his departure. A harsh reality of managing at a big club in the modern era.
As shown by the Ronaldo acquisition, Juventus are hugely ambitious and determined to succeed in Europe. That is why they are currently making overtures towards Pep Guardiola. Decisions will also need to be made about the squad with the midfield lacking creativity outside of Miralem Pjanic and an attack heavily reliant on Ronaldo - Paulo Dybala had another disappointing campaign after seeming as if he was ready to burst onto the world stage a couple of years ago. Andrea Barzagli is leaving, Giorgio Chiellini is ageing and Leonardo Bonucci has a fractious relationship with the supporters after his departure & subsequent return from Milan.
A big reason for optimism was the emergence of teenage forward Moise Kean whose hot streak of goalscoring form lit up some otherwise workmanlike performances from the champions. He could well be one of the pioneers of the new Juventus.
