or maybe we just didnt have the time for this after gayboy7 left last minute in the summer window
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Dušan Vlahović (75 Viewers)
- Thread starter Dostoevsky
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In the summer, big clubs are going to fight over signing Haaland and eventually the losers in that battle will look for alternatives. Vlahovic would've been topping their lists and, even if he already have only Juve in his mind, the numbers could get crazy enough for him and his agent to change their minds.
Securing him in this transfer window was a masterstroke really.
Securing him in this transfer window was a masterstroke really.
https://theathletic.com/3098175/202...-a-rivals/?source=weeklyemail&campaign=602288
Why Juventus’ €75m move for Vlahovic will strike fear into their Serie A rivals
By James Horncastle Jan 29, 2022
54
It is a birthday Dusan Vlahovic will always remember. On the morning he turned 22, the Young Player of the Year in Serie A celebrated by undergoing a medical with Juventus yesterday.
But it was the masked-up supporters behind those crash barriers in Turin watching him arrive on Friday who felt like they were the ones receiving a gift.
Vlahovic’s unwillingness to entertain overtures from teams in the Premier League had already led to the suspicion his preference was to join Juventus. But the timing of the move came as a surprise.
There was understandable scepticism about Juventus’ ability to do a deal of this nature in the current transfer window. When the club introduced its new executive team last summer, chief executive Maurizio Arrivabene prepared fans for a cost-cutting exercise as the club moved to a more sustainable model post-Cristiano Ronaldo. “There has been a lot of criticism of our window,” Arrivabene said. “Some of you have too quickly forgotten the club’s financial situation.”
At a shareholders’ assembly in September, Juventus announced a loss of €210 million. Simultaneously, they organised a €400 million capital increase to address the impact of the pandemic on their bottom line and to support a five-year development plan. Exor, Juventus’ majority shareholder, advanced the club €75 million — which, by coincidence, would be the fee the club have now agreed to pay Fiorentina for Vlahovic — but that money was not expected to be spent in one go on one player.
Before Christmas, Arrivabene insisted: “The capital increase is to give the club stability at an accounting level after two crisis-hit years caused by the pandemic. It’s not for the transfer market or for a ‘coup de theatre’ (sudden or unexpected event in a play). I reiterate we will do something, but costs must be contained and it will depend on what the balance sheet allows us to do.”
Juventus have made pivotal January signings before. It’s enough to think of Edgar Davids in 1998 and, in the case of Andrea Agnelli’s presidency, the €300,000 pick-up of a foundational piece like Andrea Barzagli from Wolfsburg this time 11 years ago.
All have tended to be low cost and, in the specific case of strikers, stop-gap solutions until the end of that season. Luca Toni, Alessandro Matri, Marco Borriello, Nicolas Anelka (below) and Dani Osvaldo served as bridges until Juventus could appeal to elite centre-forwards, affording them time to wait for Fernando Llorente’s Athletic Bilbao contract to expire and set up a move for Carlos Tevez.
(Photo: Dino Panato/Getty Images)
It looked for much of this transfer window as if Juventus would take the same course of action. Exploratory talks were held with the agent of Anthony Martial about taking him on loan from Manchester United. The perception was of a club playing for time so they could get their ducks in a row to sign Vlahovic in the summer.
Except, time was of the essence.
Fiorentina wanted to sell the 14-cap Serbia international as soon as possible for a couple of reasons.
First of all, Vlahovic had 18 months left on his contract and no matter how many goals he scored between now and season’s end in May, his value would depreciate with every passing day. The risk of an injury and a subsequent period on the sidelines as free agency approached was also on Fiorentina’s minds.
Second, things had become so bitter between the hierarchy and Vlahovic’s entourage that it mattered less and less to whom they sold their star striker.
The Florence club had discouraged interest from Atletico Madrid in the summer under the assumption Vlahovic would sign a new deal. After scoring his first goal of the season against Torino in late August, he told Sky Italia the reason he was still at Fiorentina was because he wanted to stay with them.
The Athletic understands Vlahovic was offered €3.5 million a year, with another €500,000 available in easily-achievable bonuses — €100,000 upon reaching five goals, another €100k for getting to double figures and so on. A compromise was reached on an €80 million buy-out clause — half of which was to be paid five days after his prospective sale and the other €40 million a year later. But the goalposts kept moving in terms of a signing-on fee, the agents’ commission and sell-on clauses, depending on whether the sale price ended up above or below the fee to buy him out of his contract.
To Fiorentina’s disappointment, it became increasingly apparent the player was being advised not to sign a new deal and so owner Rocco Commisso took the drastic step of going public with the news in October.
Later that month, The Athletic learned executives from the club flew to London to sound out Premier League teams about Vlahovic, with a view to starting an auction. Arsenal showed firm interest and spoke to Fiorentina several times but their interest was not reciprocated by the player. The inability to get through to Vlahovic’s entourage left the distinct impression something was afoot with Juventus.
In the event that an offer did arrive from the old enemy, all Fiorentina could do was drive the hardest bargain possible and plan for his succession with Swiss club Basel’s Brazilian striker Arthur Cabral identified as his replacement.
Whether a Juventus bid came or not still felt low in probability. But Fiorentina pushed for a resolution.
Things began to escalate on Sunday, when fifth-placed Juventus not only failed once again to beat one of the teams above them in the Serie A table but couldn’t even muster a single shot on target in a 0-0 draw with AC Milan.
A flailing attack has been holding them back. StatsBomb data shows Juventus are 12th of the 20 Serie A clubs in open-play xG and 14th in xG/shot. They’re neither creating nor finishing at the level needed to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Signing Vlahovic addresses an obvious need then, but it became justifiable from a financial point of view too.
The way to look at it is this is a bet on him taking Juventus further than anticipated in Europe — they face Villarreal when the Champions League’s last 16 begins next month — and, most crucially of all, ensuring they finish in the top four.
What Juventus invest now should be recouped in prize money upon reaching the Champions League again. Not qualifying for it for the first time since finishing seventh in 2010-11 frankly does not bear thinking about.
(Photo: Gabriele Maltinti/Getty Images)
By pulling off the biggest move of the January transfer window anywhere in football, Juventus in turn make a major statement.
It has altered the mood of the fans and instilled fear in everyone ahead of them in the table with the exception, at least in the immediate term, of champions Inter Milan. The likes of Napoli, Milan and Atalanta were already expecting Juventus to make it hard for them in the second half of the season. Now they have really turned up the heat.
Second-placed Napoli have a coach in Luciano Spalletti with a track record of qualifying for the Champions League and are capable of playing dazzling football when everyone is fit and healthy. But they remain flaky.
Milan, in third, have started to stutter and while the need for a centre-back continues to be projected on them by the media, internally the focus is on re-igniting a flagging attack. The recent returns of Rafael Leao and Ante Rebic from injury may be enough on their own to do that, however Brahim Diaz’s faltering form is a concern.
Leaders Inter have quite unintentionally helped Juventus by weakening their rivals for a place in the top four by taking Edin Dzeko and Hakan Calhanoglu away from Roma, who sit sixth, and Milan in the summer and Robin Gosens off fourth-placed Atalanta this week.
The hope they all cling to is that Vlahovic may not be enough on his own to solve all of Juventus’ problems in attack in one fell swoop.
Data-wise, the analytics community will tell you he is running hot, scoring 12 non-penalty league goals off a non-penalty xG of 8.19. The €75 million question is how long he can keep that up for and whether he will get the service and chances he desires in a team who have so far struggled to create; a team, lest we forget, that won’t be able to count on his former Fiorentina team-mate Federico Chiesa until next season following his ACL injury earlier this month?
Vlahovic’s arrival also comes amid uncertainty around the futures of Alvaro Morata and most notably Paulo Dybala (below), who was confident of signing a new deal until 2026 before Christmas only for talks to be put on hold with the terms now expected to undergo revision.
Dybala’s glare up at the directors’ box after his goal against Udinese two weeks ago felt particularly pointed. After all, he was supposed to be the face of this club but, as with the signings of Gonzalo Higuain in 2016 and then Ronaldo two years later, someone always comes into town and eclipses him.
(Photo: Stefano Guidi/Getty Images)
Vlahovic now becomes the main man, the future of this team, and his €7 million-a-year salary is less than what the injury-prone, six years older Dybala is currently seeking.
The silky Argentinian has always wished to stay — despite Juventus’ brazen attempts to sell him to Manchester United or Tottenham in the summer of 2019 — and the prospect of him playing just off Vlahovic with a fit-again Chiesa, possibly with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Juan Cuadrado (who is also set to be out of contract in June) on either side next season is tantalising. A compromise must be found in the coming months, though. Otherwise, Juventus risk losing the player for nothing.
Dybala’s potential departure would of course hurt, but any blow would now be softened by the knowledge Juventus have procured arguably the best forward in his age category not named Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappe.
Juventus are hoping to get Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski off the wage bill this month to make room for new attacking reinforcements with Aston Villa linked with the former and Tottenham keen on the latter.
For Arrivabene, who used to be Ferrari’s team principal, it is reminiscent of the time he signed a 20-year-old Charles Leclerc to drive for the Formula 1 team.
Juventus’ spine, as presently constituted, is Matthijs de Ligt, 22, Manuel Locatelli, 24, and Vlahovic, 22.
The Old Lady doesn’t look past it after all. She keeps getting younger, and the feeling in Italy is that this record January signing, as improbable and unexpected as Ronaldo’s arrival three and a half years ago, could well be a game-changer — a new dawn for a team many feared lost in the darkness of a long hard night.
By James Horncastle Jan 29, 2022
It is a birthday Dusan Vlahovic will always remember. On the morning he turned 22, the Young Player of the Year in Serie A celebrated by undergoing a medical with Juventus yesterday.
But it was the masked-up supporters behind those crash barriers in Turin watching him arrive on Friday who felt like they were the ones receiving a gift.
Vlahovic’s unwillingness to entertain overtures from teams in the Premier League had already led to the suspicion his preference was to join Juventus. But the timing of the move came as a surprise.
There was understandable scepticism about Juventus’ ability to do a deal of this nature in the current transfer window. When the club introduced its new executive team last summer, chief executive Maurizio Arrivabene prepared fans for a cost-cutting exercise as the club moved to a more sustainable model post-Cristiano Ronaldo. “There has been a lot of criticism of our window,” Arrivabene said. “Some of you have too quickly forgotten the club’s financial situation.”
At a shareholders’ assembly in September, Juventus announced a loss of €210 million. Simultaneously, they organised a €400 million capital increase to address the impact of the pandemic on their bottom line and to support a five-year development plan. Exor, Juventus’ majority shareholder, advanced the club €75 million — which, by coincidence, would be the fee the club have now agreed to pay Fiorentina for Vlahovic — but that money was not expected to be spent in one go on one player.
Before Christmas, Arrivabene insisted: “The capital increase is to give the club stability at an accounting level after two crisis-hit years caused by the pandemic. It’s not for the transfer market or for a ‘coup de theatre’ (sudden or unexpected event in a play). I reiterate we will do something, but costs must be contained and it will depend on what the balance sheet allows us to do.”
Juventus have made pivotal January signings before. It’s enough to think of Edgar Davids in 1998 and, in the case of Andrea Agnelli’s presidency, the €300,000 pick-up of a foundational piece like Andrea Barzagli from Wolfsburg this time 11 years ago.
All have tended to be low cost and, in the specific case of strikers, stop-gap solutions until the end of that season. Luca Toni, Alessandro Matri, Marco Borriello, Nicolas Anelka (below) and Dani Osvaldo served as bridges until Juventus could appeal to elite centre-forwards, affording them time to wait for Fernando Llorente’s Athletic Bilbao contract to expire and set up a move for Carlos Tevez.
(Photo: Dino Panato/Getty Images)
It looked for much of this transfer window as if Juventus would take the same course of action. Exploratory talks were held with the agent of Anthony Martial about taking him on loan from Manchester United. The perception was of a club playing for time so they could get their ducks in a row to sign Vlahovic in the summer.
Except, time was of the essence.
Fiorentina wanted to sell the 14-cap Serbia international as soon as possible for a couple of reasons.
First of all, Vlahovic had 18 months left on his contract and no matter how many goals he scored between now and season’s end in May, his value would depreciate with every passing day. The risk of an injury and a subsequent period on the sidelines as free agency approached was also on Fiorentina’s minds.
Second, things had become so bitter between the hierarchy and Vlahovic’s entourage that it mattered less and less to whom they sold their star striker.
The Florence club had discouraged interest from Atletico Madrid in the summer under the assumption Vlahovic would sign a new deal. After scoring his first goal of the season against Torino in late August, he told Sky Italia the reason he was still at Fiorentina was because he wanted to stay with them.
The Athletic understands Vlahovic was offered €3.5 million a year, with another €500,000 available in easily-achievable bonuses — €100,000 upon reaching five goals, another €100k for getting to double figures and so on. A compromise was reached on an €80 million buy-out clause — half of which was to be paid five days after his prospective sale and the other €40 million a year later. But the goalposts kept moving in terms of a signing-on fee, the agents’ commission and sell-on clauses, depending on whether the sale price ended up above or below the fee to buy him out of his contract.
To Fiorentina’s disappointment, it became increasingly apparent the player was being advised not to sign a new deal and so owner Rocco Commisso took the drastic step of going public with the news in October.
Later that month, The Athletic learned executives from the club flew to London to sound out Premier League teams about Vlahovic, with a view to starting an auction. Arsenal showed firm interest and spoke to Fiorentina several times but their interest was not reciprocated by the player. The inability to get through to Vlahovic’s entourage left the distinct impression something was afoot with Juventus.
In the event that an offer did arrive from the old enemy, all Fiorentina could do was drive the hardest bargain possible and plan for his succession with Swiss club Basel’s Brazilian striker Arthur Cabral identified as his replacement.
Whether a Juventus bid came or not still felt low in probability. But Fiorentina pushed for a resolution.
Things began to escalate on Sunday, when fifth-placed Juventus not only failed once again to beat one of the teams above them in the Serie A table but couldn’t even muster a single shot on target in a 0-0 draw with AC Milan.
A flailing attack has been holding them back. StatsBomb data shows Juventus are 12th of the 20 Serie A clubs in open-play xG and 14th in xG/shot. They’re neither creating nor finishing at the level needed to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Signing Vlahovic addresses an obvious need then, but it became justifiable from a financial point of view too.
The way to look at it is this is a bet on him taking Juventus further than anticipated in Europe — they face Villarreal when the Champions League’s last 16 begins next month — and, most crucially of all, ensuring they finish in the top four.
What Juventus invest now should be recouped in prize money upon reaching the Champions League again. Not qualifying for it for the first time since finishing seventh in 2010-11 frankly does not bear thinking about.
(Photo: Gabriele Maltinti/Getty Images)
By pulling off the biggest move of the January transfer window anywhere in football, Juventus in turn make a major statement.
It has altered the mood of the fans and instilled fear in everyone ahead of them in the table with the exception, at least in the immediate term, of champions Inter Milan. The likes of Napoli, Milan and Atalanta were already expecting Juventus to make it hard for them in the second half of the season. Now they have really turned up the heat.
Second-placed Napoli have a coach in Luciano Spalletti with a track record of qualifying for the Champions League and are capable of playing dazzling football when everyone is fit and healthy. But they remain flaky.
Milan, in third, have started to stutter and while the need for a centre-back continues to be projected on them by the media, internally the focus is on re-igniting a flagging attack. The recent returns of Rafael Leao and Ante Rebic from injury may be enough on their own to do that, however Brahim Diaz’s faltering form is a concern.
Leaders Inter have quite unintentionally helped Juventus by weakening their rivals for a place in the top four by taking Edin Dzeko and Hakan Calhanoglu away from Roma, who sit sixth, and Milan in the summer and Robin Gosens off fourth-placed Atalanta this week.
The hope they all cling to is that Vlahovic may not be enough on his own to solve all of Juventus’ problems in attack in one fell swoop.
Data-wise, the analytics community will tell you he is running hot, scoring 12 non-penalty league goals off a non-penalty xG of 8.19. The €75 million question is how long he can keep that up for and whether he will get the service and chances he desires in a team who have so far struggled to create; a team, lest we forget, that won’t be able to count on his former Fiorentina team-mate Federico Chiesa until next season following his ACL injury earlier this month?
Vlahovic’s arrival also comes amid uncertainty around the futures of Alvaro Morata and most notably Paulo Dybala (below), who was confident of signing a new deal until 2026 before Christmas only for talks to be put on hold with the terms now expected to undergo revision.
Dybala’s glare up at the directors’ box after his goal against Udinese two weeks ago felt particularly pointed. After all, he was supposed to be the face of this club but, as with the signings of Gonzalo Higuain in 2016 and then Ronaldo two years later, someone always comes into town and eclipses him.
(Photo: Stefano Guidi/Getty Images)
Vlahovic now becomes the main man, the future of this team, and his €7 million-a-year salary is less than what the injury-prone, six years older Dybala is currently seeking.
The silky Argentinian has always wished to stay — despite Juventus’ brazen attempts to sell him to Manchester United or Tottenham in the summer of 2019 — and the prospect of him playing just off Vlahovic with a fit-again Chiesa, possibly with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Juan Cuadrado (who is also set to be out of contract in June) on either side next season is tantalising. A compromise must be found in the coming months, though. Otherwise, Juventus risk losing the player for nothing.
Dybala’s potential departure would of course hurt, but any blow would now be softened by the knowledge Juventus have procured arguably the best forward in his age category not named Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappe.
Juventus are hoping to get Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski off the wage bill this month to make room for new attacking reinforcements with Aston Villa linked with the former and Tottenham keen on the latter.
For Arrivabene, who used to be Ferrari’s team principal, it is reminiscent of the time he signed a 20-year-old Charles Leclerc to drive for the Formula 1 team.
Juventus’ spine, as presently constituted, is Matthijs de Ligt, 22, Manuel Locatelli, 24, and Vlahovic, 22.
The Old Lady doesn’t look past it after all. She keeps getting younger, and the feeling in Italy is that this record January signing, as improbable and unexpected as Ronaldo’s arrival three and a half years ago, could well be a game-changer — a new dawn for a team many feared lost in the darkness of a long hard night.
I can't see why anyone would be critical of this deal. We needed a forward and we got the best young forward going around after haaland and mbappe...and did this in January.
The new guys running things behind the scenes are serious about getting this club back to the top. This signing is a massive step towards that.
They are clearing out the shit, bringing in quality....effectively doing what we thought they'd do in the summer market is being done in the winter market.
The new guys running things behind the scenes are serious about getting this club back to the top. This signing is a massive step towards that.
They are clearing out the shit, bringing in quality....effectively doing what we thought they'd do in the summer market is being done in the winter market.
Our issues werent that we didnt spend but that our budget was not used effectively the last 5 years. As you said they are undoing some issues while moving forward. I do worry that we are setting a hard salary cap and Dybala might not fit into it. But getting rid of Ramsey, Benta, Arthur, Rabiot, Sandro etc will be tough but neccesary and it seems the management is doing a good job in their priorities
