Juve already prepared to sell Melo
Tuesday 22 December, 2009
Juventus are already considering selling their Brazilian midfielder Felipe Melo with English side Arsenal in mind.
The 26-year-old has been a very expensive flop since his £18.5m transfer from Fiorentina in the summer which also included two players in exchange.
He was voted the worst signing of the year earlier this month and came to be substituted after just 32 minutes against Catania on Sunday.
Juventus are apparently keen to discover if the competition they faced from Arsenal for Melo in the summer was in fact true or just a cunning mind game played by Fiorentina director of sport Pantaleo Corvino.
La Gazzetta dello Sport understand Juventus would like to recoup as much of their initial investment as possible, but it's unlikely any team would take Melo in spite of his performances in the Confederations Cup during the summer.
Ciro Ferrara is reported to have wanted Udinese's ball-playing midfielder Gaetano D'Agostino only for the board to lose patience during negotiations and turn their attention to the much more expensive Melo, who is an anchor man like Momo Sissoko and Christian Poulsen.
Ferrara and Melo's relationship is now said to be like the weather in Italy, consistently sub zero, as demonstrated in the fact they didn't shake hands following his substitution on Sunday.
The former Almeria youngster then came out and complained that he is not a playmaker and shouldn't be played as such. It remains to be seen what action Juventus will take over the 17-day winter hiatus.