Maurizio Sarri is close to taking over at Chelsea and certain parts of the Italian press suggest Daniele Rugani will be his first signing.
The 23-year-old defender hasn’t played regularly at Juventus over the course of the last season leading to speculation that he could leave the club this summer.
Sarri was responsible for launching Rugani in Serie A when the two worked together at Empoli and the former Napoli tactician has always been keen to reunite with the youngster.
Sportitalia claim that a deal is all but complete for €32m plus €3m in performance related bonuses. It follows on from a meeting between Rugani’s agent Davide Torchia and Juventus director Fabio Paratici a week ago in Milan.
At the time, Torchia claimed the meeting, which took place just as reports of Chelsea’s interest in Rugani emerged, was purely coincidental and routine.
Sportitalia have a mixed record when it comes to transfer news and somewhat surprisingly, they’re the only outlet in Italy to report Chelsea’s interest in the Juve defender.
