And just like that, the season is over. 

A Juventus campaign which began with renewed hope of Champions League glory was brought to a crashing halt on Tuesday evening, Ajax running out 2-1 winners over a Juve side that contained Cristiano Ronaldo. In each of the last three years, the Portuguese megastar has lifted European football’s most prestigious trophy, but even he was unable to end the Old Lady’s painful wait for continental glory. 

In Serie A she has — just as in the previous seven seasons — been able to rule with an iron fist, sitting 18 points clear of every other team, just a single point sitting between the Bianconeri and a staggering eighth consecutive Scudetto. 

But in the Champions League it has been a different story. A group stage loss at home to Manchester United should’ve set alarm bells ringing back in November, just as the first leg defeat to Atlético Madrid ought to have done in the previous round. Yet thanks to a stunning comeback over the Spanish side and a promising 1-1 draw at the Johan Cruijff Arena just a week ago, Juve were able to paper over some very evident cracks.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way, as the acquisition of Ronaldo prompted many to install the Italian giants as favorites to win UEFA’s elite competition. It was easy to understand why: adding one of the two best players in the world to a team who had already come excruciatingly close to winning the Champions League without him appeared to make Max Allegri’s side almost unbeatable. 

Ajax arrived in Turin looking to make a mockery of that, but while their football is unquestionably beautiful to watch, Juve and CR7 soon gave them something to think about. As Mike Tyson once noted, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth,” and with just 28 minutes on the clock, Ronaldo delivered a haymaker, nodding home a Miralem Pjanić corner following a well-worked set-piece routine. Yet the visitors remained composed despite their relative inexperience, rallying to equalize less than six minutes later before skipper Matthijs de Ligt bagged the second half winner. 

It was a deserved victory and one that Ajax had fully earned over the two legs, the contrast of their vibrant red and white shirts against the dull black and white stripes of their opponents providing the perfect metaphor for the difference between the two teams. Erik ten Hag has built a modern, progressive side perfectly equipped to compete with the European elite, while the team they bested at the Allianz Stadium looked like one rooted in same the fearful and overly cautious approach that has been holding back Italian football for years.

Two-legged xG map for Ajax - Juventus. This isn't one of those underdog runs where you defend like hell and get a little lucky. Ajax are running folks over playing their game. pic.twitter.com/pDmWVPNtZ7

— Caley Graphics (@Caley_graphics) April 16, 2019

To those who have watched them closely, however, this was simply Juve once more revealing a fatal flaw that has been exposed throughout 2018-19 and looking at the list of teams to have troubled them this term lays this bare for all to see. Ajax now join Atléti, United, Genoa, Atalanta, and SPAL in having earned positive results against the Bianconeri, and the fact they all employ a high-energy, relentless approach is no coincidence. 

Shortly after the final whistle blew on Tuesday night, both Allegri and Juve president Andrea Agnelli insisted that the coach will stay in charge next season. You don’t need to be a genius to understand the Albert Einstein maxim that defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results,” yet if he does remain at the helm, then there is little doubt that the 51-year-old – and the makeup of his team – will need to change drastically. 

The bright spots of this season have included seeing 19-year-old Moise Kean thrive amid unexpected opportunity, netting goals for club and country with aplomb. He possesses a composure beyond his years and is only just beginning to tap into his full potential, while Leonardo Spinazzola, João Cancelo, and Rodrigo Bentancur have also repeatedly proven their qualities, playing with a fearlessness that is becoming an integral part of any successful team. 

While Ajax would’ve probably already handed that quartet regular starting berths – and by now profited from selling them to richer clubs and replaced them with even younger players – all four were unforgivably on the bench on Tuesday. In their place was the steady but distinctly average Mattia De Sciglio, a 32-year-old Blaise Matuidi, and the ridiculously out-of-form duo of Alex Sandro and Paulo Dybala. Should a loss therefore really be a surprise?

Let’s not pretend that Allegri is suddenly going to arrive for preseason this summer and install a tiki-taka inspired system or transform himself into Jurgen Klopp; he simply needs to release the handbrake. Too often, his Juve are playing within themselves, the 3-0 win over Atléti last month an all-too-rare example of what they are capable of if the coach allows them to approach a game with the freedom to express themselves. 

Analyzing the team more closely, the defense is weaker than in the heyday of the BBC trio as Andrea Barzagli inches towards retirement and Leonardo Bonucci fails to reach the level he was at before his ill-advised and sordid affair with AC Milan. Without Giorgio Chiellini the backline falls to pieces, Daniele Rugani left exposed and back-pedaling as opponents pour forward towards Wojciech Szczesny’s goal. 

With Kean, Federico Bernardeschi, Douglas Costa, Juan Cuadrado, and Mario Mandžukić to call upon, the Old Lady can and probably should move on from Dybala, this previous column having explained in detail how he no longer fits in a team built around Ronaldo. It is not his fault and it isn’t even a criticism of him, but deployed as a striker against Ajax he had every opportunity to prove he belonged on Tuesday and he squandered it completely. 

All of which leaves us looking at the midfield. The same midfield that was, not too long ago, home to the perfectly meshed talents of Andrea Pirlo, Arturo Vidal, Paul Pogba, and Claudio Marchisio is now in need of serious rebuilding work. Pjanić is now the only outstanding player, but by flanking him with some combination of Emre Can, Matuidi, Betancur and Sami Khedira, Allegri is handcuffing the Bosnian, submerging his creativity amidst a plodding, one-paced unit in desperate need of an inject of speed and dynamism. 

Aside from Khedira – a man who currently runs at a pace akin to the way glaciers moved in the last ice age, which is seemingly also when he first began playing football – the others are good, useful players. At times this term, Bentancur, Can, and Matuidi have looked excellent, but the problem is that no combination of them together works. 

The impending arrival of Aaron Ramsey should help, but he alone is nowhere near enough. If the confirmation that Allegri’s tenure is to continue is taken at face value (rather than being seen as a move to protect the company share price), then heavy investment has to be made in this midfield. 

Without it, the €341 million investment in Ronaldo is simply putting a band-aid on a dead body; sure, it’s an immaculately styled band-aid and it will score plenty of goals, but the rotting corpse underneath it isn’t going to spring back to life any time soon. Players such as Sergej Milinković-Savić of Lazio and Tottenham’s Christian Eriksen have been mentioned at various intervals, and in truth it will take someone of their stature to truly make a difference. 

What happened in Turin this week was not just the end of Juve’s latest Champions League adventure or their last meaningful game of the campaign, it was the sounding of a death knell for cautious, negative football that their coach opted to employ. It was the same gong that announced the end of Jose Mourinho’s time at Old Trafford earlier in the campaign, but unlike the Portuguese boss, Allegri has shown he knows there is another way.

If he truly is staying, then he must quickly dust himself off and hatch a plan to ensure that never again does his team lose because they were overrun, beaten for pace or lacking in tempo. Allegri must build a side that can stand toe-to-toe with outfits like Ajax rather than looking like they brought a knife to a gun fight. 

Supporters of the Bianconeri have seen this ending before in Cardiff, Berlin, and even last year in Madrid. They’re tired of it. Yet the only way to avoid it is with a new beginning, one which catapults the Old Lady – a club who prides itself on being a leading light in off the field matters – into the modern era in the only arena that truly matters. Ajax showed how far behind Juventus are on the pitch as they brought the curtain down on Cristiano Ronaldo’s first year in Italy. 

It was much earlier than most expected as, just like that, the season is over. 

Now the real work must begin.

Adam Digby is an Italian football writer for FourFourTwo, The Independent, and elsewhere. Author of "Juventus: A History In Black & White." Follow Adam on Twitter.