Juve, revolution on the market: who stays and who leaves

by our correspondent Fabiana Della Valle

May 23rd
– Empoli

The future risks going up in smoke in 5 days. From Thursday to Monday, everything suddenly became darker at Juventus: first the elimination in extra time in the second leg of the Europa League, a competition that could have guaranteed direct access to the next Champions League, then the sentence that complicates qualification for Europe that counts for next season to which was added the defeat at Empoli. Thus Juve found themselves once again catapulted away from the top and the failure of the Champions League would inevitably affect next season: less income (the loss is at least 50 million), less money to be used on the market. Therefore the watchword in that case would become downsizing, with an eye to the wage bill which will have to be more contained.

In the recent chat with John Elkann, Massimiliano Allegri guaranteed the club owner that he would be able to do without crazy investments: he will bet a lot on young players who have already gained experience this year (such as Fagioli and Miretti) and on whom the coach knows to be able to count.

The most difficult job will be to place the many players who will return from loans (from Arthur to Kulusevski, from McKennie to Zakaria) by drawing income from them. It will be the task of the new diesse (who is being looked after by the manager of the sports area Francesco Calvo, who continues to have the trust of CEO Maurizio Scanavino): Juve has already chosen Giuntoli, but first they must free themselves from Naples. De Laurentiis is making a block for now and the Bianconeri are not ruling out plan B, or rather the internal solution (Giovanni Manna, current Next Gen sports director, with Federico Cherubini, who however is inhibited due to the capital gains affair).

Juventus 2023-24 will therefore start again from a mix of young people and senators, a hard core formed by Perin, Danilo, Bonucci, Gatti, Bremer, De Sciglio, Fagioli, Locatelli, Miretti, Kostic and Iling. With them Allegri – who despite the frictions with a part of the management seems solid, armored by the rich contract of 9 million euros net per year until 2025 – the reconstruction phase will begin.

There are several big players on the list of possible starters. Paredes, on loan from PSG, will not be redeemed: his season has been disappointing. Without Europe it will be difficult to keep Rabiot, whose contract is about to expire, while for Cuadrado there have already been contacts between Calvo and agent Alessandro Lucci and surprisingly he could extend for another season at lower figures (he now earns 5 million) : with De Sciglio’s injury, who will be out for a long time, the scenarios have changed and Juventus cannot remain open on the right. Without the Champions League, one or two sacrifices will be essential to make ends meet and the most expendable names are Chiesa and Vlahovic: neither of them is untouchable for Allegri. Vlahovic is liked in the Premier League and beyond: on him, in addition to Chelsea, there are United and Bayern. The situation of Chiesa is more complex, which after a year conditioned by the injury risks not having big offers. Chapter Di Maria: the wind has changed in the last few days, so a renewal that seemed obvious has become much more distant. Fideo has been very discontinuous and without the Champions League Juve are less inclined to keep him in Turin, given the important signing (6 million euros but with the benefits of the Growth Decree).

Szczesny, Rugani and Kean are also in the balance: if they bring offers they will be evaluated. Alex Sandro has just renewed automatically but having a heavy contract (6 million) if someone came forward Juve would gladly get rid of him. Evaluations will also be made on Milik, on loan from Marseille: the redemption is not too expensive and Allegri likes it a lot, but he will talk about it later. A separate discussion must be made for Pogba: Juve is a prisoner of his rich contract (10 million a year, including bonuses, for another 3 seasons) but if he were to ask to leave, of course he would not object. It’s unlikely that he does and above all that he has admirers after a year in which he practically never played.