Juventus suffered a rather humiliating and potentially fatal 3-0 defeat to AC Milan in Turin on Sunday evening. The result puts the Rossoneri firmly in the driving seat to pip the recently dethroned champions into next season's Champions League and offers further evidence of how worrisome the Old Lady's current state is.
Even the most dominant teams can have off seasons, but 2020/21 appears to be more than just a blip for the Bianconeri.
Andrea Pirlo's appointment just a week after he had been given his first ever job with the club's U23s last summer pointed to a transitional season that was likely to bring complications, but few could have expected that, after 35 Matchdays, Juventus would be at risk of dropping into the Europa League.
In need of a rebuild
While Pirlo has made mistakes himself over the course of his debut campaign, the Italian hasn't exactly been helped by the club. Upon his departure, Maurizio Sarri branded the current crop of players 'uncoachable', and less than a year later he might just have been proven right.
Beyond Juan Cuadrado, Matthijs de Ligt, Weston McKennie and Federico Chiesa, it's hard to pick a Juventus player who has played to their potential this season. Dejan Kulusevski and Alvaro Morata are others that are probably deserving of backing but, beyond those, there aren't many players at the club who could be labelled as unsellable. Pretty much everyone else could, and maybe should, be moved on in a rebuild.
Their dominance is over
While it wouldn't be a great surprise to see Juventus challenging at the top again next season, that's likely to be as part of an even more hotly contested title race in Italy involving a group of teams.
AC Milan, Atalanta, Napoli, Roma and Lazio will all see an opportunity in 2021/22, with Antonio Conte's Inter having to balance the Champions League and domestic duties again.
After a nine-year stranglehold on the Scudetto, though, Juventus' spell of being untouchable at the top of Italian football has come to an end, and they'll need a drastic overhaul - with or without Pirlo - to become a genuine force again.