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Outlining Juventus long-term transfer strategies
The first transfer target of the Serie A giants is Axel Witsel. The Belgium International can join the Old Lady either in January or at the end of the season, once his contract with Zenit. St. Petersburg has expired.
Giuseppe Marotta and Fabio Paratici, however, are also considering the long-term future of the club and have set sights on a few profiles who could strengthen the squad and lower its average age.
Take Juventus’ defensive pack, for example. Giorgio Chiellini will turn 33 next season, Barzagli 36, Bonucci and Benatia 30. Rugani would become the only centre-back in the squad in his 20s and the bianconeri need to find a young centre-back next summer.
As our transfer pundit Fabrizio Romano reports, the Serie A giants met Kostas Manolas’ agent during the 2016 summer transfer window, but AS Roma do not want to sell their solid rock defender to their rivals after last summer’s sale of Pjanic. Juventus, however, will be looking for a similar profile at the end of the season.
What about the attacking department? The future of Mandzukic is up in the air. Allegri thinks extremely high of him, but the Croat could be realistically looking for more playing time at the end of the 2016-17 campaign. The idea of the Old Lady is to sign a new, young, striker who can learn from Gonzalo Higuain and become a back-up to the Argentinean striker and Porto’s Andre Silva is on the shortlist of the Serie A giants even if the striker is being followed by many other top European clubs.
Fabrizio Romano, translated by Lorenzo Bettoni
