Juventus will not be offering new contracts to either Gianluigi Buffon or Giorgio Chiellini.

The duo have spent a large number of years with the club, but there was always going to have to be a time when we went our separate ways, and Sky Sport (via TuttoJuve) claims that will be this summer when their contracts come to an end.

Buffon did leave us previously to join Paris Saint-Germain in 2018, before returning just one year later, and thankfully didn’t harm his legacy.

The 43 year-old has more than held his own between the sticks this season, but we are expected to replace him with a younger model. It remains to be seen whether he will decide to hang up his playing boots or look for a new club.

Chiellini has remained the club’s captain since the above initially left in 2018, and lead us to glory in both of the two completed seasons thus far, but he has struggled to remain fit for much of the current campaign, and you wouldn’t blame Juve for looking beyond him going into next season.

We already have three first-team options all worthy of regular playing time at centre-back with Leo Bonucci, Merih Demiral and Matthijs De Ligt as options, while Radu Dragusin will be hoping to challenge for his chance to play next season also.

This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t expect the club to look into new options in defence this summer, as improvements can always be made, but you would imagine that Buffon’s departure would guarantee a new addition to the squad.

Patrick