Saul's release clause is 80M, prob don't expect Atletico to sell. Simeone is staying and they made another deep run into the CL/half decent attempt at La Liga.

I understand you rate him as a player and there have been no actual links for him to us but I just thought I would chime in.

Patrik Schick will join Juventus
MAY 23, 2017
Patrik Schick will be the first Juventus signing this summer after Juve agreed terms with Sampdoria.

According to Genoa based Il Secolo XIX, Juventus have agreed terms with the player over a summer transfer as well as coming to an agreement with Sampdoria.

The young Czech talent has a €25m buyout clause in his contract and according to Il Secolo, Juventus will pay this in two instalments over the next two seasons.

This follows on from various other reports in Italy which all suggest that Schick will join the Bianconeri this summer.

RAI Sport reported yesterday that the21-year-old striker will sign a 5 year contract with Juventus and will remain on loan at Sampdoria for the 2017/18 season.

It’s believed Bianconeri vice-chairman Pavel Nedved played an important role in convincing the young Czech talent to join Juventus.

Reports: Barcelona agree deal to sell midfielder to Juventus. He has made 33 appearances for Barcelona so far this season.

Juventus have well and truly established themselves as a force to reckon with in Europe and now according to reports in Italy, they have agreed a €25 million deal for Barcelona midfielder Rafinha. The La Masia graduate has made 33 appearances this season, but has failed to establish himself as a regular starter. According to La Gazzetta Dello Sport, the Old Lady are ready to give the 24-year-old an extended run in the first team.

Rafinha, oh *bleep* off

Mario Mandzukic extends until 2020 - L'Équipe


didn't see that coming
with all due respect i hope he won't be our starting LM next season

You can't dislike a player like Mandzo , pure grinta and gives his all in field but I agree with warrior.
You can see that our left wing lacks something offensively , while we are great with Cuadrado and/or Alves lining up with Dybala and Higuain.
Someone like Sanchez can bring pretty much the same hard-working style while improving our technique and end product immensely,meanwhile we can use a grinta (hardworking) type of player in midfield.So definetly I'd prefer him (Sanchez or a similar player to him) over Mandzukic for LM/LW.

However Mandzukic can be very important as first rotational option for both CF and LW/LM positions.There have been important offers for him (Besiktas I think offered him 7 mln € wage)and some rumors saying Juve renewed just to raise his value and sell him for more but I doubt this will happen , so he stays.

Exclusive interview with Marotta

‘Others can keep their alibis. Juve have triumphs’

‘Those who blame the referee after defeat will never improve: in six years we earned 100 more points than Roma and Napoli’

‘We planned around Dybala in the Del Piero style: you’ll see, we will have a long journey together and our brand will grow further’

‘Allegri leaving? I won’t even think about that. We are going to Cardiff, we’ll win the Champions League and then sit down to discuss it’

‘We are ready on the transfer market, it won’t be easy to improve this squad: confirmed champions are required, or youngsters with… a good head on their shoulders’

He says "good head on their shoulders" and last week he said that they look at the personality of the potential players.

I get the feeling that every time he says that he is talking about Keita. He has been a big trouble maker for Lazio.

who cares about this guy ?? you see players like Baldo Keita on every corner in Dakar, he's nothing special

Not to mention the fact that he acts like a princess. Little bitch asked Lazio for a transfer every 6 months, and many problems with teammates: show up late in training, bad attitude, fight with Lulic. From what i read he is the kind of player who always feel mistreated, disrespected for no reason. Not to also mention that this super-duper-star doesn't defend.

You don't want that kind of slobs in your team... i said earlier this week, that he's not my first choice but i trust Marotta if we buy him. But in fact, i trust the board to be clever enough to NOT buy him. He has "future Juve bidone" written on his forehead.

We can't deny that he is talented but problematic as well. However is no big deal taking a risk going for such player when you have your team filled with wise players and saints like Gigi , Barzagli , Chiellini etc.
I don't think he'll cause trouble to our group, we have a pretty solid group and we can absorb these type of players like we did with Tevez for example.As long as our team is filled with good,hardworking experienced players and down to earth youths we won't have any problems dealing with a Keita once in a while.It's worth the risk imo if the price is low and we can't afford better players (who also come more expensive).

I hope if we get him we can fix his attitude. I do agree that for the price it's a good deal, maybe a great deal. I'm just not getting too excited over it because of how similar he is to Pjaca.

If he joins, I don't expect Pjaca to be a success with us.

Keita reminds me of Lacazette when he started as winger for Lyon.He is clearly a bit more forward or wing forward than left midfielder while I see Pjaca a bit more traditional left midfielder.Anyway I don't see that having both Pjaca and Keita would be bad for them, we don't have any depth coming from bench at all so Keita can cover on wings and for CF position if needed while Pjaca on wings , also both are technically good enough to give Dybala a rest against small Serie A teams , we can't keep playing the same 4 playere over and over and I bet if we started doing it since the season begun they would have been burnt out lol.
So with Pjaca back from injury in good shape and Keita we have two talenter players who don't really harm each others development , they will be ready to prove their worth coming from bench and if no injuries happen like it did with Pjaca they can become starters over Mandzukic for sure , in matches when we might not need Mandzukic grinta as much as we need speed and technique upfront.

These days it seems like all attackers are cut-inside wingers that can also play SS. So whoever we buy it will be a threat for Pjaca. Might as well buy-back (or not loan anymore, idk) this Spinazzola lad who is LB/LW. It will be cheaper for the same result: decent performances against provincial Serie A teams.

What we need is a LM, not a LW. Our main XI cannot be displayed in a 4-3-3, otherwise you need to bench Dybala or Higuain.

So 4-2-3-1/4-4-2 it is. In this case Keita is not the missing piece of our puzzle imo.
Only overkill bench material

HIGUAIN
BERNAR-DYBALA-CUADRADO

SPINAZZOLA/KEITA-SCHICK-PJACA
joker: MANDZUKIC

lol Spinazzola is the new Lanzafame

What if someone gets injured? Playing Spinalola level of players on Champions League would be fun to watch.

I'd be happy if he turns to be a solid player who we can get for free but so far no way we can get such players in our team , sounds like we are going back to Molinaro & Pazienza days , which are clearly over at last.

We are playing the CL final with guys like Sturaro & Lemina on the bench because it's impossible these days to have 23 world class players in our squad.

By default we use wide mildfielders more than wingers. Keita won't accept being a back-up, he'll feel disrespected or whatever. I think Spinazzola might be OK with this role.

I'm with Warrior, we play with lemina, sturaro and asamoah as wide options. Spinazzola is better than all of them at that.

For that matter he is a better left mid than Keita who is very much a forward.

What happens if Sandro gets injured later on and we are playing the 3-4-3? Asamoah or Sturaro? Spinazzola>>>

We have Sandro & Asamoah on the left plus Dani & Cuadrado on the right and we are adding De Sciglio so we have lots of options for our wing backs. It makes no sense to bring a balanced but still mediocre (until proven wrong) guy like Spinazzola.
Not only that but having 5 CB we can always play Chiellini on the left or Barzagli as RB as we have done a few times this season,with Benatia our new defender we are more than covered there.

Now look at our offensive players , the only option we had from bench (Pjaca) is injured for long and we basically don't have any player to put in if someone gets injured , we can get away with Sturaro and Lemina in Serie A but in ChL is a different story.

Having a player like Keita (or another name if you like) is a must , we need technically good players upfront not some mediocre players. We are too thin in attacking options and unless we return to 352 we need reinforcements i this department badly,more than any other department with MID following.

But what does needing a forward have to do with recalling our own (free) player who is an upgrade over Asamoah?

Making money by selling Asamoah and getting a better player for free in no ay hurts oír attack.

Er.. we don't play with typical wingers because we changed formation half way through the season


If people here are advocating playing Lemina and friends as wide midfielders next season then I am scooting on out of this thread and never looking back They're average - Bad enough in their own positions never mind being out of position.

Only reason they get minutes is because there is no alternative. The whole point of the transfer window is to get alternatives that aren't trash.

Rincon, i meant to play Spinazzola as back-up LW if we buy Bernardeschi. As a LB i'm fine with Asamoah, i rate him as a very good bench option.

The easiest and lees expensive solution is to buy this damn De Sciglio that you all rate, make him starting Left Back then promote Sandro as LM. This would work as well since Sandro is an attacking threat when released from his defensive duties.

Tomwin Lannister wrote:
If people here are advocating playing Lemina and friends as wide midfielders next season

ffs NOOOOOOOOOO

but as you know we had success even with those srubs warming the seats so their influence has been limited.

The point is not to buy underachievers, but young players who are willing to wait & earn their spot in the team ala Rugani. Now i don't think Keita is willing to wait nor do i think he deserves a spot in our starting XI.

Long story short, i hope we buy someone else. Also he has a punchable face, even worse than Gabigol.

Warrior wrote:Rincon, i meant to play Spinazzola as back-up LW if we buy Bernardeschi. As a LB i'm fine with Asamoah, i rate him as a very good bench option.

Yeah I know, I didn't explain myself well. I meant to say that he can be the back up LW while also being more useful as a backup LWB than the players we already have.

f Keita. we are linked with Kendrick Lamar

I'd rather spend Bernardeschi's moneys on him.

Keita is overrrated. We are Juventus, possibly CL winners and treble winners. It is Bernardeschi that is who we need. He will take us to another level. As for the LB we will be buying De Sceglio who can cover both sides. Not sure if Asamoah will stick around as we have 5 CB's, but most likely he will if Lichtsteiner is sold. As for midfield, it is looking like Rafinha and/or Paredes as CM. Schick will stay at Samp another year. With Bernardeschi and a healthy Pjaca we will have more than enough cover up front.

There are few players that can take our current team to another level and Bernardeschi is clearlg not one of them.

Let's not fall on that overrated italians trap again , many of us wanted Sturaro to become half of the player Vidal was for us and we all know he ended up being a Fellaini.
Berardi also failing to prove himself ready for a top team.
Immobile...
Zaza couln't make it as a reliable bench option.
Giovinco...
Am I forgetting anyone?

Bernardeschi can be slightly better but still he wont ever be anything else than a solid player , no WC , ever in this world, no matter where he goes , he has that mid-table superstar mark all over him.Sorry.

Let's not use nationalities to judge players, positively or negatively.

If I was a shit hot prospect, absolutely blazing in goals and looking like a World beater, and was from Italy. You'd be writing me off.

Same person, born 500km to the west and you'd be all over me (No homo)

It makes no sense.

As far as taking us to the next level, within 2 years max he'd overtake Mandzukic as our starting LM unless he flopped. As a team, we're arguably the best in the World right now. Individually, our forward flanks are hardly awe inspiring. They're doing their job and allowing our true match winners to flourish but there is room for improvement, thanks in part to our World class pairing of full backs.