The two remained on the bench for 90 minutes against Sassuolo, with Spalletti preferring the returning Milik and Vlahovic. It is the certification of the failure of the 2025 summer transfer market
Failed. Without appeal. With the serious risk of spending the rest of the season on the sidelines and becoming a major economic problem in the summer. The entry onto the pitch of Vlahovic and Milik at the end of Juve’s match against Sassuolo, beyond signifying the return to availability of two players who have been out for some time due to their respective injuries, sounds like a sentence towards Jonathan David and Lois Openda. Those who were supposed to be the new faces of the Juventus attack, for whom less than 300 days ago more than 56 million euros in cards and 10 million in wages per year were invested and who, at the time of Spalletti’s choice to prefer the Serbian and the Polish player, will have had a clear picture of what awaits them between now and the end of May: benching for 90 minutes or so. And to think that, in justifying Tudor’s dismissal, Juventus CEO Comolli had said that he was not spending “sleepless nights for new signings, but for the team’s performance”. As if to say that the Croatian had not been able to enhance the qualities of the Canadian and the Belgian. And yet, 5 months later, here we are again at the starting point.
the failure of openda at juve
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The most serious situation, in both technical and economic terms, is certainly that of the former Leipzig. His season was almost disarming, with a score of only 2 goals scored in 993′ (one in Serie A and one in the Champions League) and the misery of just 9 games as a starter. Spalletti’s figurative, verbal and real slaps against Benfica were of no avail as, against Sassuolo, he was completely excluded from the match for the third time in a row. Indications of an adventure in Turin destined to end in the summer, despite Openda having recently moved into the villa that belonged to Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Pogba and Nico Gonzalez. Of course, with these conditions it will be a big problem for the Juventus managers to be able to place him, considering that upon reaching tenth place (9 points missing) the obligation to buy him for 40.6 million will be triggered, to be added to the 3.3 million loan paid last summer. A total of almost 44 million, which thanks to the salary of 7.4 gross per year, brings the Belgian’s cost-to-goal ratio to almost 26 million per goal and over 50,000 euros per minute across all competitions.
question of feeling
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If the feeling between Openda and Spalletti never blossomed, that of Jonathan David, however, was a sudden failure. Because at a certain point the Canadian seemed, if not to have fully convinced the former coach, at least to have found that continuity of execution which, for a centre-forward, hides every flaw. His, however, between January and February, with 4 goals and 3 assists, was a flash in the pan. The former Lille player soon returned to the victim of bloody errors in support (see Inter’s momentary 1-0 goal) and in front of goal, which led the former coach, from half-time of the match against Pisa onwards, to prefer Boga as a false nine. Of course, his technical and economic situation is clearly better than that of Openda: being the second best scorer behind Haaland among those born after 2000, he has many admirers (PSG threw out the idea of an exchange with Kolo Muani to Juve) and, above all, having arrived on a free transfer (net of the 12.5 million in commissions) he will not entail the risk of capital losses. But even he, after the first full match, under Spalletti’s management, spent observing his teammates from the bench, now seems like the past for Juve.
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