EXCLUSIVE: Nainggolan, Candreva to Juventus... but what will the fans say?
Juventus have some surprising counter-moves planned if their stars were to depart in summer.
Though a lot of the talk has focussed on Paul Pogba, Colombian international Juan Cuadrado may well end up returning to Chelsea, whose likely incoming manager, Antonio Conte, is a big fan of his.
So much so, in fact, that we revealed a few months ago that Conte had asked Giuseppe Marotta for two players before he left Turin: one being Cuadrado, the other Juan Iturbe. Cuadrado was the object of a gentlemen's agreement between Juventus and Chelsea, sealed back in November, in which the former Fiorentina star would move to Turin for €22-23 million.
What about Pogba? It's all up to him, basically, and whether any of his pretenders can cough up an insane amount of money. Pogba is very happy in Turin, and would want to be paid handsomely, preferably not by a nouveau riche (hello, Manchester City!) club. This is before we ask any questions about Barcelona and Real Madrid's adherence to FFP regulations.
If they were to leave, however, who would they replace them with?
Sky Sport Italia can reveal that the Old Lady sounded out two Romans: Radja Nainggolan and Antonio Candreva. The latter would be a perfect fit to replace Juan Cuadrado, though Juventus fans will be baffled at the notion of spending over €20 million on a player who they used to own. Another issue would be the 3-5-2, though the idea is to get him to play as a playmaker, and not as a winger. Thirdly, but probably most importantly, Andrea Agnelli and Claudio Lotito aren't exactly the best of friends: whether it's Infront, the FIGC, Carlo Tavecchio's election, TV rights in general, modernising the league, the introduction of reserve teams... is there something they agree on?
What's the problem with Nainggolan, beyond the fact that he is owned by Roma and wouldn't exactly be cheap?
Well, the Antwerp-born star hasn't exactly endeared himself to the Bianconeri faithful of late, with tweets trolling the heck out of Juve, one being posted earlier this season after their 2-1 defeat to the Lupa.
That said, Juve have hardly been known to keep grudges (except for Calciopoli, that is), especially with players they have always followed (Juve's interest in Nainggolan allowed Cagliari to increase his price-tag, and the Antwerp-born player to ramp up his salary demands, which Roma agreed to) and who could turn out to be useful in the long-term.
What would Juventini make of Radja being Arturo Vidal's long-term successor?
@NicolaBalice, translated by @EdoDalmonte
