Reports in Italy suggest Juventus have come to an agreement with Sassuolo over the transfer of Simone Zaza and Domenico Berardi.
Initial details are sketchy, but both Sky Sport Italia and a number of other Italian outlets are suggesting that Juve have exercised their option to purchase Simone Zaza. A further deal is also in place to purchase the remaining 50% of Domenico Berardi’s contract from Sassuolo.
Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio reports that Zaza will join Juventus in the summer but Berardi could remain at Sassuolo on loan for another season.
Juve may also be preparing for life after Carlos Tevez by agreeing a deal with Atletico Madrid for the transfer of Mario Mandzukic. Di Marzio suggests that Juve have reached an agreement with the player on a 4-year deal, paying the striker €3.5 million a season. The Bianconeri will pay €15 million in transfer fees for the Croatian striker.
I don’t get it. Zaza is not good enough for Juventus and Mandzukic is too overpriced. And even if we lose of Llorente, Matri (end of loan) and Tevez we still have too many strikers. Zaza and Mandzukic will cost us €40m. Add another €10m and we can get Cavani. I hope none of this is true. The only player talked about here that makes sense is Berardi. We need wingers, not more strikers. Ugh I hate the offseason. All these dumb deals make me nervous.
At least we aren’t targeting Van Persie.
I heard €30m for Mandzukic. The €15m is for Zaza.
Reports saying 15-18m for mandzukic. Not bad at all hopefully we can sell llorente for upwards of 10m
€15m for Mandzukic would probably be a bargain. Hopefully Zaza will be sold if that happens.
I don’t think Zaza gets sold this summer. I think he’ll get a shot with us
Perhaps. I think Morata should start every match if healthy. And Dybala should get the majority of minute at the other forward spot. So that leaves few games for Zaza and Mandzukic if both arrive. I think a van Perise type player would be better to have as a back up. Zaza obviously needs to play and Mandzukic is too expensive and (still) too young to sit on the bench.
Mandzukic will be the starter at the beginnning of the season and it will be his spot to lose/Dybala’s spot to take. Obviously is Dybala starts scoring at the same clip as Mandzukic or if MM pulls a Llorente then Allegri will switch things up. I think throwing Dybala in there from the get go will be a lot of pressure for a young kid when there is no need for it. Take it like we did with Morata and slowly introduce him/get his feet wet and hopefully he will explode when he settles in with the team. He is already used to Serie A so he may get settled in even quicker than Alvaro
Dybala is 21. Not 12. He doesn’t need to be coddled. Morata was different in that he wasn’t playing at Madrid. He needed to get his feet going. Dybala has been a regular all season. He doesn’t need to be eased into anything. Only way Dybala should be on the bench is if Tevez sticks around.
None of this makes sense. Our big summer signing is Dybala. And now we are trying to find a player that can start ahead of him? Makes no sense.
Giovinco had an awesome season at parma too and what happened when he came back? not the player we were hoping for. There is a lot of pressure on these players when they put on that shirt and especially when you cost the club 40m euros. We can handle the league with other options to start with so yeah i think easing him in is the best idea. Roma threw Iturbe in there from the start and when he didn’t produce right away the fans got tired of him and I’m sure it got to his head. I’m not saying they’re similar players but just similar situations; Younger player touted to be the next big thing so I think we have to be careful as it’s a delicite situation.
You make it sound like Juventus is a kindergarden and these players are toddlers. I would throw Dybala in there from the first second. Boys don’t become men until you treat them like men.
Well that’s the reality of the situation whether you like it or not. There’s a reason you are making all your thoughts on a blog and not in a board room in Turin
That could be said about everyone except those in that room. That doesn’t mean I’m wrong.
I just think that is what will happen. Only time will tell
Zaza and Mandzukic both cost 15mill, so its 30 for both of them. I’d give Zaza the chance this season, he might develop in a succes at Juve, plus you can get that money back if he isn’t what we need him to be, he’s still young and an Italian international.
Mandzukic is really overpriced though, he had a bad season at Atletico and is past 30. But all strikers are overpriced these days.
I don’t get the point of too many strikers though, if Llorente, Matri and Tevez leave we have Morata, Dybala, Zaza and Mandzukic, that isn’t too many strikers. And you do need a veteran striker, who is okay with not being a starter.
Concerning wingers, we either need a lot of them or none at all. We haven’t used wingers in years now, so Berardi is going to be used as a ST/CF/CAM I think. Maybe RW if we use 4-3-3.. We don’t have other wingers, so we would need a left winger too and back-ups, that’s not really happening
I still think it’s a waste of money. Why sign two average players for €15 each when you can get one very good player for €30m (Dzeko?). Or, even better, sign one great player for €50m (Cavani?). Juventus don’t need to sign depth any more. We already have that covered. We need to sign players that will improve our starting-11. Zaza and Mandzukic won’t do that. I would start Coman and Berardi over both those guys any day. Hell I would sign van Persie over Zaza and Mandzukic and we can get him for basically nothing.
And we need wingers because our wide play is quite honestly abysmal. We can’t expect Licht to do the job of 3 men every game. He’s too old for that. We need a plan B when we struggle and that plan B is wingers. And we have exactly zero wingers right now.
You do realize how much 3 good wingers would cost right? and I do not want Dzeko on this team he is just a big slow body and that is not what we need right now. We are not going to go for wingers bc like Belgian said we either need a ton of them (if that happens they won’t be good quality) or stick with our system of 2 strikers and a number 10 (which is what’s going to happen). Hope we try out Berardi for the treq spot bc i think he can do it
Why do we need a ton of good wingers? Does Bayern have a ton of good wingers? Does Real Madrid have a ton of good wingers? Does Barcelona have a ton of good wingers? No, they don’t. Of course they don’t. They have one for the right side and one for the left side. That’s it. You don’t need a ton of players to cover 2 positions.
No but they have the best wingers in the world and some on the bench and who do we have right now? Coman who is 19 years old and played in a handful of games last year and Berardi who hasn’t played a single game for us. So I would not put money on management going out and buying wingers when we will not be using them next season. Hopefully Coman goes out on loan and has a great season and hopefully we keep Berardi and he has has a great season! then maybe we will splash big for a big name winger next summer that way we will have some reliable cover
That’s the whole point. Those teams didn’t have the best wingers before they signed them. We need to follow suit. The diamond we play is predictable. We don’t score a lot of goals and struggle against good defenses. Without wingers the only tactical changes we can make is replace one player at a position for the same position and hope he does better. Other teams can move things around and take a different approach to breaking teams down. We can’t do that if we have nothing outside of the diamond. That’s why we should take back Berardi and sign a winger instead of two more strikers. It will give opposing coaches more to prepare for.
And think about it. What major teams outside of Milan a few years ago, when they had Kaka and Shevchenko, have dominated without a top winger? I can’t think of anyone. Great wingers make great teams.
Bayern completely failed when Robben and or Ribéry werent available though. Barca dont really use wingers either in their formation and Madrid can cover any position with world class players, we would need to get starters first of all, who is going to to play on the left? Is only Berardi enough for the right wing?
Sign Di Maria. Or Anderson. Anyone. Berardi can play on the right side. The point is we need to add another dimension to our team. The diamond is stale.
You can’t get either of those for anything under 40million and we’re spending a lot already, Dybala 40mill, Berardi + Zaza 25, I don’t know if another big profile is even possible. I don’t think so, especially not without selling others.
But I do agree that wingers would add even more tactical flexibility to the team
€40m for Di Maria sounds like a great deal. I would rather do that than spend close to it on Zaza and Mandzukic.
Di Maria will cost far more, but I think Anderson would be something around that figure. Imo Zaza is worth betting 15 mill on, he’s 23 and an International, you can get that back. I’m not enthusiastic about Mandzukic either though, so agreed there, I wouldn’t give 15mill for him
I think we will eventually start moving to wingers bc that is the way to go but at this point it just can’t be done. We aren’t getting Anderson from Lazio, he said he was staying and Lotito said they don’t plan on selling him soon so it would take a bid way above 40m imo. Di maria may cost around 50m(which we cant afford to begin with) but also has big time wages which we cannot do and change our whole wage structure for one player. We will get there but it won’t be next season. Our formation will either be 4312 or 4321, i personally like the latter with who we have right now
Thats my idea exactly, we won’t do it now. We will need to pay a shitton for a quality one and we’re already spending big, it could happen in the future, when Pirlo leaves and maybe one of Vidal/Pogba, then there is definitely space for wingers
I don’t want either of them. Zaza does not make this team better. In other words, might as well just burn the money.
No Zaza is a good investment. 23 year old who already has got caps for the national team. If he doesn’t pan out we can sell him to another club for the same price we got him and if he performs then great for us, the club, and him
I don’t agree. It’s a waste of money. We should be signing players that make us better. Not gambling on players just in case they might be better than anything thought they are.
Who is going to make us significantly better for around 15 million?
No one. So why not pool that money with the money we will waste on other average players and instead sign someone that matters.
Who is average that we have signed? Khedira was free, Dybala was 40m and on low wages. Berardi is 20 and an upcoming star. Zaza is a 23 year old international for 15m who is a clinical finisher. Last season we got romulo on loan which didn’t work out so we sent him back. Everyone said pereyra was average but he turned out to be a good player for 14m. Everyone said sturaro was a bad signing but a 21 year old who saved us against RM and is looking to be a warrior in the MF. Everyone said Evra is a waste and is too old but he proved himself this season. My point is that Management has been doing an unbelievable job so maybe just trust them because they scout these players all year and they know the financials. Any top player that will cost us big bucks will also come with a high wage and we have a strict wage structure and if one purchase messes that up then every player starts asking for raises and it gets fucked. So no I don’t think we wasted money on average players who made us miss out on a deal for a top player.
Zaza is average in my opinion. He would never get off the bench on any other top European side.
Do you see chicharito as a better player than Zaza? I don’t really but I may be biased
Do I think Chicharito would start for Azzurri over Zaza if he was Italian? Yes, I do. But they’re both average.
I think they are very similar and chicharito got a decent amount of time for RM. Just playing devil’s advocate here. I think he deserves a shot with us, but I don’t see him being with us for a long time. If he has a decent/good season we will prob cash in on him or use him as a makeweight in a deal for a better player
Zaza would be a signing for depth, not much more. In that view, he is an upgrade imo
Is he better than Llorente? I really don’t think he is. Either way, paying €15m for a 4th choice is excessive. We don’t need a 4th choice striker.
I think he is yeah, and has age going for him for a financial point of view. I don’t know, strikers are overpirced, look at Mandzukic for 18mill, but at least Juve is looking to strenghten the attack, I don’t like the prices but if they do well, nobody will bat an eye for that
Zaza can still grow and if he doesnt, you just sell him again. We do need depth in our strikers, Tevez will leave, Matri too, Coman loaned and Llorente sold most likely. Then Morata isnt sure either thanks to that damn clause, which leaves us only the 40mill new guy Dybala. Dzeko is definitely not worth 30mill, that would be even more of a waste imo. That guy is 30 years old and not even a starter.
I would like wingers, but I don’t see it happen. You need back up too and who are we going to bring in for that?
You don’t need back ups for the wingers. Just sign one for each side and if one or both get injured we adapt accordingly.
And I didn’t mean we pay €30m for Dzeko. Just that I’d rather have him than Zaza.
We can adapt, but it doesn’t give added value, imo. If you use wingers, you can’t field 3 central midfielders, so one of Marchisio, Vidal, Pogba will be benched and this is with Pirlo on the bench already.
Meaning this winger will have to be enough of a starplayer to bench one of these. Don’t get me wrong though, I would like wingers too. It’s just since 2012, our central midfield is so damn strong, you can’t keep any of them on the bench for a winger.
If Vidal/Pogba is sold, there is still Pirlo, for now. And Sturaro, Marrone, Asamoah waiting behind these, I just don’t see Juve going for wingers
Of course you can have 3 central midfielders if you use wingers wingers. That’s what most teams use.
What formation is that then? 3 central midfielders and 2 wingers? Thats 5 midfielders and considering most teams use a 4 man defense, thats a 4-5-1 formation, who uses that? 😛
I think you’re confusing wingers with midfielders.
Yeah a lot of teams play 433 with 3 midfielders and 2 wingers. However, that is not our strongest lineup right now so looks like we will have to wait
Jesus Christ. That’s my whole point. We don’t have any wingers.
Yeah no shit. And you are saying go out and buy good wingers which costs a huge amount of money which we don’t have so we have to upgrade our current system because it just got us to the CL final.
I’m saying we need a new dimension to our play and that means wingers. We clearly have money. We just spent more than €30m for a 21 year old with one decent season in his career. If you don’t agree that’s totally fine. I just would like us to have more options offensively.
No i do agree with you! I’m just trying to be realistic because we spent 40m for a 21 year old like you said so a proven top winger will be a lot more! And Anderson was like the same thing as dybala except he resigned until 2019 and has stated multiple times that he doesn’t wanna leave yet. So he would have costed a lot more than dybala. I think next year we will push for serious fullbacks depending on how ours look this year, along with a good winger. We will have berardi coming off a season with us (hopefully) and we will see how coman does if he goes out on loan
If we do bring in Berardi I really hope both he and Coman will get to play together on each wing. Perhaps a 4-2-3-1 against some of the weaker teams with Dybala manning the #10 role.
Against weaker teams I’m ok with that but right now our strength is clearly the midfield so limiting us to only 2 of our main guys as the pivots is not ideal. Plus allegri wrote his coaching thesis on a 3 man midfield I believe so I think he would go 4-3-3 before 4-2-3-1
What do you see as a winger? the right and left one up front in a 4-3-3? I don’t see those as wingers, so that might be where the confusion is
Yes those guys are wingers. Like Neymar. Or Cruyff.
Looking at it like that than yeah okay. I just have a very classic view of wingers, like Nedved and Camoranesi
He had a falling out w Simeone and what you say is a bad year is still 20 goals! We praised carlitos for that. He has also proved that he has the grinta for a team like us. Maybe it will be a good thing to have him and Dybala coming in for one spot. It will push every player to secure that spot and hopefully will bring out the best of all of them
He had 20 goals? I read it was 12 xD Competition is good but Mandzukic isnt really the creative kind of player, not really replacement for Tevez imo.. But we cant know yet, we’ll have to wait and see :p
It was 20 in all comps just checked sorry bout that! but I think he had 12 after January and then he had problems with the coach and couldn’t really find the net after that. Anyway Juve is the right place for a tight knit group where players are able to sort out their personal problems and I don’t see that being a problem with him. You’re def right that they are different kind of players but if we have Berardi and Dybala next year then they can hand the creative aspects and Mario is there for leadership and as a proven goal scorer who will bust his ass for the team and I don’t mind having him come at all. Especially for the price that’s being thrown around (15-18m)
I just think we need some veteran, assuming Llorente will be sold. Don’t know if Mandzukic is the one to go with, but besides him and maybe Van Persie I don’t see anyone available for that role.
exactly, I know MM is not the same type of player as tevez but we don’t have many options here and MM is a good one for the price we are getting i think
I hope they are buying zaza to either sell him or use in some trade to get darmin from torino
That’s what I’m hoping too.
if llorente leaves, then Zaza will fit in. Berrardi can play RW role. My only concern is they are not experienced enough. i hope allegri can develop them. he’s well known for that ablity. and, who am i too judged the managerial? in the bigger line, they proved almost all of us wrong. lets have faith in them.
Berardi is doing great in Serie A already, I have a lot of faith he’ll do fine at Juve. Zaza is more of a question mark, but he should be at least as good as Llorente is and far younger too.
I want them both and give Zaza the chance to show his value
If we look for a backup or rotation player. Javier Hernandez would be an excellent target. He has better goal instinct and pace than Matri or Llorente.
I would love it, but I think I’ve read him saying he wants to be a starter now somewhere.
What happens to the #10 if Tevez goes? It’s not looking to good right now:(
Could be given straight to Berardi, or not given out for a year.
Yep I was thinking the same thing. I hate getting my hopes up but Berardi could be something special with us
is it worth starting a new thread for the Tevez saga ? I think i might have to…… 🙁
Yes it is.Its a very important saga. Dont apologize for starting a new tread. I enjoy all your threads. Keep up the good work.
thanks bud – i appreciate you saying that
Yeah man, thats our most important striker since years who is leaving us, definitely worth it. Unfortunately 🙁