It’s already a week ago that Beppe Marotta and Axel Witsel remained in the offices of Corso Galileo Ferraris waiting for the all-clear from Zenit St Petersburg for the Belgian international to join Juventus. We all know now of course that this never happened but Marotta has kept the door open for the 27-year-old by declaring to Jtv that business is “only postponed”. The question now is when will it happen?
 

The worst case scenario, or best case in respect of the Juve transfer budget, is that the player arrives in June on a free-transfer after his contract in Russia expires. But it seems an attempt may be made in January with Juve planning to try to cut the fee down quite considerably from their last offer in August. The bianconeri will probably not be prepared to go above €5 million for a player with only six months left on his contract and it won’t be easy to convince Zenit to part with their star midfielder for such a small amount but Juve have been left feeling bruised by events last week and in the end, they could still have the last laugh.

By Nicola Balici. Adapted and translated by Steve Mitchell