Juventus have completed numerous high profile transfers in recent years. None generated more attention than their €100 million ($111.7m) acquisition of Cristiano Ronaldo, but the Portuguese star was joined in Turin by plenty of expensive team-mates.
The Bianconeri paid Ajax a fee of €75 million ($83.78m) for defender Matthijs de Ligt, while Fiorentina are set to receive €40 million ($44.68m) for Federico Chiesa. Even this current transfer window has seen Juve splashing out, beating off a host of competitors to seal a €70 million ($78.19m) deal for Dusan Vlahovic.
That move was discussed in detail in this previous column, and it seems the club is not done yet, with Denis Zakaria set to complete his move from Borussia Monchengladbach before the transfer window closes.
Yet as excited as Juve fans will be to watch how Vlahovic and the Swiss midfielder help their team in the weeks and months ahead, they cannot fail to be equally impressed by news of some high profile exits.
Reports that Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski are set to join Tottenham will not only be extremely welcome news to those on the Curva Sud, it is the latest signal that things have tangibly changed at board level.
According to Sky Italia expert Gianluca Di Marzio (h/t Football Italia), Spurs will pay €19 million ($21.22m) plus €6 million ($6.7m) in bonuses to buy Bentancur outright.
Meanwhile, Kulusevski is set to join on loan at a cost of €10 million ($11.17m) with an option to buy for a further €25 million ($27.92m), with that becoming an obligation if Tottenham qualify for the Champions League and he plays in half their games.
To most, those sound like perfectly normal transfers, but generating income like that from the sale of unwanted players is something Juventus have repeatedly failed to do in recent seasons.
Even going back to when current Inter director Beppe Marotta was running the show for the Bianconeri, they constantly failed to sell on players at the right time. Waiting too long meant players like Mario Mandzukic, Sami Khedira and Blaise Matuidi all left for no fee, the latter pair earning high wages while clearly being unwanted.
The same is true of Aaron Ramsey who has refused a number of moves this month, while Douglas Costa – signed for €40 million ($44.68m) back in 2018 – spent last season on loan at Bayern Munich and this year at Gremio. His contract will expire in June and Juve will have received no return whatsoever on the 31-year-old winger who spent half his time with the club playing for someone else.
It was arguably even worse with Gonzalo Higuain, who joined Juve from Napoli in 2016 at a cost of €90 million ($100.53m). While he would score 66 goals in the black and white stripes, the arrival of Ronaldo meant there was no longer room for him and he would spend the 2018/19 campaign on loan at AC Milan and Chelsea.
The Rossoneri did pay €18 million ($20.11m) for that switch before Higuain returned to Turin for the 2019/20 season, but the following summer would see his contract terminated as he moved to Inter Miami on a free transfer.
It is a recurring problem, with players signed to such high salaries that other clubs are not willing to match and making players almost impossible to sell. Yet it seems things are finally changing for the better, with the appointments of new CEO Maurizio Arrivabene and Sporting Director Federico Cherubini signalling a genuine change in direction.
The impending sales of Bentancur and Kulusevski are definitely part of that, as is the targeted move towards signing younger players like Manuel Locatelli (24), Zakaria (25) and Vlahovic (22).
It also goes some way towards explaining the delay in agreeing Paulo Dybala’s new contract, with Sky Italia (h/t Football Italia) reporting that the directors have actually withdrawn the club’s previous offer which would’ve made him their highest paid player.
Given their recent history with older players on expensive deals, it is understandable that Arrivabene and Cherubini would hesitate to commit the same mistake, with 28-year-old Dybala looking for a four-year contract.
The Argentinian will be a free agent in June if this is not resolved quickly, but recent events show that things have certainly changed at Juventus as management look to get costs under control.