For long periods of the season covering Serie A has seemed like just a lot of number crunching about Inter Milan.

Inter go five points clear, then 10 points, then 18 points… Inter do the league double over AC Milan for the first time in 25 years… Inter take 90 percent of league points on offer (hat tip to soccerphile for pointing out the latter).

So imagine this correspondents relief last week when for two whole days Juventus reclaimed the spotlight from their old enemies.

It happened first on Thursday with news of a cash injection of nearly 105 million euros via a capital increase.

On Friday, talk turned to how they planned to spend it.

A paparazzi photographer waiting for Roger Moore outside an Italian restaurant in London got an unexpected scoop, snapping Juves sporting director Alessio Secco, and former vice-president, now transfer market consultant, Roberto Bettega, meeting with Frank Lampards agent Steve Kutner.

La Gazzetta started speculating about how much Lampard would earn, how many goals he might score in Serie A, and how he would fit into a hypothetical team containing several other possible signings.

Lampard moving to Juventus looks unlikely, given that they will not be playing in the Champions League next season. The story was largely dismissed in England, with few sites giving it any credence at all and I assumed at first that this was just another way of filling a slow news day.

But then I got it. The story and photograph by themselves were enough to show that Juventus are back in business.

Top of Serie B, looking confidently towards a top-flight future, the club are rich again and ready to spend. Whether signing Lampard turns out to be more than fantasy or not, it shows Juve fans that the club intends to rebuild a squad shattered by last years match-fixing scandal.

The speculation might also help cool any wanderlust inside the Juventus dressing room.

Juve coach Didier Deschamps said last week the club needed to make at least three big signings to be competitive in Serie A and to prevent more players walking out.

Midfielder Pavel Nedved has also warned that promotion to Serie A might not be enough to persuade some of his team mates to stay.

“Lets not forget that Juventus will still be out of the Champions League, said the former European Footballer of the Year. How many players will accept that after this season?

In this context, the front-page reporting of real or imagined transfer moves is not just the usual gossip, but part of a battle by the club to hang on to the best players.

And its a lot more interesting than working out the latest stats on Inter.

James Eve reports for Reuters on Italian sport