Juventus are readying an €80m offer for PSG midfielder Marco Verratti.
The Bianconeri are reportedly looking to invest heavily in their midfield with various reports in Italy suggesting Beppe Marotta is in the market for a mezz’ala and regista in the summer.
With this in mind, Corriere dello Sport report that Juve are readying a ‘Higuain-style’ assault by making an €80m for Italy international Marco Verratti.
The first hurdle for Juventus to overcome would be the inevitable competition for the former Pescara man – Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich are all reported to be in the talented midfielder, however its been suggested Bayern have cooled their interest while Juve would be Verratti’s prefered destination, if he were to return to Italy.
Second of all, Juve need to mend their broken relationship with Paris St. Germain, a club who have been reluctant to enter into negotiations with the Bianconeri since the transfer of Kingsley Coman, as evidenced by Juve’s failed pursuit of Blaise Matuidi last summer.
On the plus side, The Old Lady are in a healthy financial position and the expected high price tag for Verratti is not expected to deter them, as confirmed by Tuttosport Antonio Milone in his interview with VSRadio recently:
Milone (TS) : “If #Verratti returns to Italy, Juve are in pole position – Juventus has the economic power to sign Verratti” #RadioVSpic.twitter.com/RNERuY6nEp
— Juvefc.com (@juvefcdotcom) January 18, 2017
Juve can also rely on their healthy relations with Verratti’s agent, Donati Di Campli who confirmed that the Bianconeri had asked about his client.
“Everyone thinks about Marco, the problem is taking him away from Paris,” Donati Di Campli told La Stampa yesterday.
“I always repeat this: he has renewed his contract until 2021 and he has to respect it. The problem is that Marco wants to win. If possible he wants to do it in Paris, if not we’ll see what happens.
“Juventus asked me how he is, but nothing else.”
Verratti reportedly turned down a move to Napoli prior to leaving for PSG because of his well-documented love for La Vecchia Signora.
Though undoubtedly an incredibly gifted midfielder, I admit to being somewhat shocked by the price tag.
However, if Verratti were to join Juve, we wouldn’t be so restricted to the creativity of only Dybala and Pjanic. All 3 of these together on the pitch is an enormous amount of creativity and technical skills. With Higuain up front to finish what they can create… With Pjaca and Mandzukic also able to slot in, wow. Mouth watering attack.
But it also creates an overflow of midfielders, we can’t field them all at once! There is still Marchisio, who is simply too good and too iconic to be benched or sold. There is a need for defensive players as well, players who add steel to the finesse. In that department we have Rincon and Sturaro, arguably Khedira and Asamoah too. Khedira does more than just steel the midfield and Asamoah still has the flexibility to shift into a L(W)B. Then we have Hernanes, who is the closest natural replacement for Marchisio in the DM role. Finally we have Lemina, who is something in between for all the aforementioned.
Who are we going to dispense with? Close to all of them have a reason to be on their way out. Hernanes and Khedira are 30+, Asamoah is rusty and a shadow of his former self, the same goes for Sturaro and Lemina’s positive contributions to this season are scarce. Pjanic could be unhappy being shoehorned in positions he doesn’t really like and Rincon has only just been bought, it would be strange if he were shipped out again 6 months later, unless he would be underwhelming from this point on.
Dilemma’s for Allegri and the management. (Plus what we need most right now is stability, another drastic overhaul of players would not be beneficial for Juve)
amen
Given our current midfield we are in for a major overhaul next summer. We ll have to see who will face the dilemma.
Do you expect a big overhaul? I dont think we need one, one big arrival like Verratti should be sufficient, in my view at least. Our midfield has all it needs, just form and momentum seems to be lacking
Marchisio will be 32 next season. Khedira maybe he ll stay maybe not and for sure will be last season if he stays.We severly lack in quality if you name the others keeping in mind i consider pjanic an attack midfielder.We need 2 high quality central midfielders.
Verratti and Tolisso 80 mill. and 40 mill. would be a dream. Our midfield is the weak link. Or Dahoud or Bakayoko. Just sell some deadwood. Or the last three and no Verratti.