Imploding Juventus sacked manager Claudio Ranieri and replaced him with Ciro Ferrara _ a former defender for the club _ with just two games left in the Serie A season. With their league winless skid up to seven games, they’re only a point ahead of fourth-place Fiorentina and in serious danger of falling out of an automatic Champions League spot.

“The next two games are our future. It is not our style (to sack someone) but we cannot miss out on Europe. We wanted to shock the players so they’d take the right path with the right man at the right moment,” Juventus chief executive Jean Claude Blanc said at a press conference, adding of Ferrara “He is already a talisman for us and has nothing to prove.” Ferrara won seven Serie A titles as a defender for Juventus and is an assistant for the Italian National Team, but has never managed.

“The players must rediscover their pride and the right motivation,” said Ferrara. “I want to thank those who believed that I could be useful in this moment; I appreciate it a lot.”