Juventus are yet to land any of their early transfer targets, but not through lack of trying.
The Old Lady are well-accustomed to being considered one of Europe’s heavyweights in the beautiful game, but so far this summer we appear to be losing out.
Gini Wijnaldum’s agent recently told Goal that the Liverpool midfielder turned down a contract offer from us, before agreeing to join Paris Saint-Germain, but he is certainly not alone in doing so.
Memphis Depay has agreed to join Barcelona on a free transfer, which was always going to be a tough move to disrupt, but the ones that are really baffling me are those of Gigio Donnarumma and Hakan Calhanoglu.
The Italian goalkeeper must have grown up knowing of the all-powerful Juventus, and you would imagine he can only have dreamed of having the chance to try and emulate the success of Gigi Buffon, but he has opted to move abroad and join PSG.
Calhanoglu has been on our radar for some time, and while I could have understood if he wanted to show loyalty to AC Milan, he now appears to have turned down a move to Turin in favour of a stay in Milan, with their rivals Inter! At least that is the claim of Fabrizio Romano, and very few dare to question his reliability at present.
Any single one of the above would have improved our squad, but for whatever reason we have been unable to seal any of their signatures, and I´m a little lost as to why.
Is the uncertainty around Fabio Paratici and the hierarchy off-putting to some? Or could Cristiano Ronaldo’s presence/uncertainty be another factor in our struggle to persuade players to join?
We have known for some time that our finances are not in the best place, which is another reason why the above players who were available on free transfers would have made the most sense, but now I have strong feelings that our pull of bringing in the players that we want is loosening up.
Are Juve on the brink of losing their power, or has it been slipping slowly away for some time?
Patrick
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