The winter transfer window has ended and one of the clubs who will feel delighted once the window shuts will be Juventus. Juventus’ successful winter transfer window has seen the club manage to refresh their squad, and offload a number of players they had signed in the last few seasons, the return on which isn’t likely to be something that the Juventus fans, or the Angelli family will look fondly at.
Juventus’s Successful Winter Transfer Window of 2022
Juventus Executed Their Transfer Strategy to Perfection
In this winter transfer window of January 2022, Juventus have signed Dušan Vlahović, Denis Zakaria, and Federico Gatti (Gatti will stay on loan with Serie B side Frosinone until the end of the season).
Fringe players of the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Rodrigo Bentancur, and Dejan Kulusevski have departed. Both Bentancur, and Kulusevski will join former Juve manager, Antonio Conte, and former Head of Technical Affairs and Sporting Director Fabio Paratici at Tottenham Hotspur. While Bentancur was sold to Spurs for a fee of close to £21.5 million including £5.7 million in potential add-ons, Ramsey (six-month) and Kulusevski (18-month) left Juventus on loan deals to Rangers and Spurs respectively.
With the players Juventus are signing, they can expect more of fringe players to depart the club to free up the wage bill and allow more incomings in the summer.
Directors
A big credit for this Juventus rebuild has to go to the Football Directors at Juventus, Federico Cherubini, and Maurizio Arrivabene. Cherubin and Arrivabene replaced Fabio Paratici after a 11-year stint as the Football Director at the club. Among the two, Cherubini has been given the job to rebuild the squad, and place Juventus in a better position. For many years, Cherubini served as the right hand man to Paratici, and with Paratici’s departure, Juventus did what they do – find a replacement from within.
Paratici was responsible to get the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Matthijs de Ligt, and most famously Cristiano Ronaldo to Turin in his later years at Juventus, and one of Cherubini’s first jobs was to start an exodus in the January window, and to ensure the extras – the likes of Ramsey, Bentancur, and Dejan Kulusevski leave, to allow Juventus to reshape their midfield, and free up the finances.
Dominant Force
Juventus were the dominant force in Italy for nine long years, winning nine consecutive scudetti (2011–2020), and in order to not only become a domestic, but global powerhouse, they ended up spending big. Maybe just a bit more than they should have. It should be considered that all these signings came before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, and in a post pandemic world, Juventus had to think smart, and different. Also, on field performances had taken a dip. Forget, Europe or the World, Juventus were, and are now not even the best in Italy.
Juventus fans and bosses would agree that the exodus was executed successfully. Max Allegri’s team are too far behind from the league leaders, Inter, so a challenge for the Scudetto will be difficult, but they have strengthened their squad in a way which is more than capable of finishing in the top four and qualify for next year’s Champions League. In Vlahović, they have found a centre-forward who will provide lots of goals. Juventus never really replaced Cristiano Ronaldo in terms of his goals contribution, and Vlahović will do just that. Zakaria will provide strength in midfield, and the team is now being built in Allegri’s vision.
Main Image Credit Embed from Getty Images
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