Juventus Moved Away from Dated Tradition in the Market | OneFootball

Juventus saved the best for last in a relatively quiet summer, shelling out about €60M for Lois Openda and Edon Zhegrova on deadline day. Their only other real addition was Joao Mario from Porto. Therefore, the Bianconeri didn’t acquire any player from fellow Serie A sides, which is instead usually an integral part of their MO.

According to TuttoSport (via Mediaset), the Old Lady bankrolled other Italian clubs only through deals that had been set up by the previous management. Nicolas Gonzalez and Michele Di Gregorio had joined on loans with obligations to buy. The new brass couldn’t back out of them. They ended up sending the former to Atletico Madrid for slightly less money. In that sense, they had to make a decision only in Pierre Kalulu’s case, for whom there was an option to buy. However, activating it was a no-brainer since the sum was affordable, and he showed well since joining.

Juventus eyed a few Ligue 1 targets during the summer, the championship from which their new director Damien Comolli came, but, ultimately, they signed just Zhegrova from it. The decision to buy from abroad came from a different style of scouting and player evaluation. The Bianconeri spent nearly €150M to buy Serie A stars last year. The returns from those investments were rather underwhelming.

Our Take on the Juventus Window

The ownership didn’t do it loudly, but they wanted a clean break from the methods of their previous front office, and they got it. It’s also true, and a bit worrying from a league-wide perspective, that the players they could have added from smaller Italian clubs who would have improved their squad were only a handful.