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Amoyal: How the player's will determines Pogba, Bonucci and Cuadrado's futures
When you consider the state of Serie A it’s not surprising that Marotta would put so much emphasis on the player’s will. While Juventus can offer a state of the art stadium and a great team that now has a legitimate chance at winning the Champions League, the economic conditions of the Italian league make it very difficult to match the wages of Premier League clubs, and teams like Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich have much higher revenues than Juventus.
Juventus has tried to a long term approach when it comes to accommodating their star player wishes. Both Pirlo and Vidal were eager to leave the club last summer as more of a life choice. Tevez wanted to return to Boca Juniors, while Pirlo was interested in living in the United States. To accommodate two key players, Juventus released Pirlo with one year left on his contract and gave Boca Juniors a very advantageous deal with Tevez.
Last summer Vidal wanted to earn more at Bayern Munich, a club who also gave him a better chance to win the Champions League. Considering that the Chilean midfielder was 28 at the time and just had 2 years left on his deal, Juventus had a short window to cash in on him- because the player wanted to leave and there was a very good offer, Juventus pulled the trigger. By not holding players hostage, Juventus has become a more attractive destination for other stars- they know they will be treated well in Turin.
How Vidal’s transfer unfolded last summer, gives us a blue print of what could happen with Pogba and Bonucci- two players who could earn considerably more by leaving. Last summer Pogba was pursued by Mourinho when he was at Chelsea, the Blues offered Juventus around 80 million euro, a proposal that the Italian club were happy to reject also because Pogba wasn’t overwhelmed by their offer of around 9 million euro net of taxes per season.
Since Manchester United offered up to 13 million euro a season (as reported by Di Marzio) would that convince Pogba to push for a move away from Juventus? Certainly possible, the flip side is Pogba is only 23 so there will be a huge market for him beyond this summer and Juventus has a legitimate chance of winning the Champions League next season.
Should Pogba leave this summer, Juventus will look to replicate the Zidane move from 2001. While Serie A was in much stronger position, Zidane was one the one who pushed for the move since his wife didn’t like living in Turin. Juventus used the transfer fee from the Zidane sale to acquire Buffon, Thuram and Nedved (whose relationship with his agent Raiola was a key factor in bringing Pogba to Turin).
The situation is similar for Leonardo Bonucci, whose market value increased after an excellent Euro. Pep Guardiola has never hid fact that he’s a big fan of the Italian defender, after Bayern’s first match against Juventus in the Champions League; Guardiola told the media that Bonucci was one of his favorite players. So it’s not surprising that Bonucci was at the top of Manchester City’s shopping list this summer.
So far the Citizens have offered 45 million euro to Juventus for Bonucci- a considerable amount for a player who turned 29 at beginning of May. Juventus turned the bid down as they want to keep their BBC defense intact, just like with Pogba unless Bonucci pushes for a move to earn considerably more abroad, Juventus will be happy to keep him even with Benatia likely arriving.
While Benatia was one of the best center backs in Serie A at Roma, he has been injury prone at Bayern Munich, where he only played in 29 Bundesliga games over 2 seasons. He cannot be fully counted on to replace Bonucci, Benatia’s arrival has much more to do with Caceres leaving. Juventus starts 3 center backs at a time and defense is their trademark- Barzagli is also 35 and Chiellini is injury prone so both Rugani and Benatia would be able to play a lot.
But the player’s will can also work in Juventus’ favor as we saw with Pjanic, who used his below the market value exit clause with Roma to sign with one of his previous club’s biggest rivals. Roma would have much preferred to lose him to a club abroad, but Pjanic even sacrificed part of the exit clause, which was due to him, to sign with Juventus. The bianconeri could not offer him the wages of a top club in England, or say PSG and Bayern Munich- but Pjanic still pushed for the move.
The same could happen with Juan Cuadrado. The Colombian winger had an excellent season at Juventus after struggling at Chelsea- his last minute goal in the derby against Torino totally changed the trajectory of Allegri’s team. Juventus acquired him on a straight loan with no option to buy, and they are now negotiating to acquire him on a permanent basis. While Conte has always been a big fan of Cuadrado, the player wants to stay in Italy and his agent, Alessandro Lucci (who also represents Bonucci), is brokering a deal to keep him at Juventus.
While Juventus’ profile in Europe is clearly on an upward trajectory, so much so that Dani Alves would leave Barca to sign with them, they still have some ground to make up with other top clubs financially. To keep their best player, Juventus will still have to bank on their stars wanting to stay in Turin for a chance to win in a great environment over making the most money.
See you next Tuesday for another round of transfer talk…
David Amoyal is the manager of the English page on Gianluca Di Marzio's website where he also writes weekly articles. David covers transfer news for ESPN, and has appeared on numerous radio shows on Sirius XM in the US as well as TalkSport in the UK. David is the former editor in chief of Vavel USA and his articles have been featured in many sites around the world. You can follow him on Twitter @DavidAmoyal
