When Dusan Vlahovic was the star of the show at Fiorentina, most big clubs in Europe took an interest in what the Serbia international had to offer.
Arsenal were one of those last January, knowing they would need a striker with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang trying to force a move away and Alexandre Lacazette intent on running down his contract at the Emirates.
The Gabon international then left Arsenal on a free for Barcelona, and was followed by the Frenchman six months later, as he returned to his former club Lyon.
By that point, however, it was too late to sign Vlahovic, as Juventus had pulled the trigger on a very expensive £73m deal to guarantee his signature midway through the campaign.
Mikel Arteta brushed it off and went after Gabriel Jesus instead, eventually signing the then-Manchester City striker, which has worked out pretty well for all involved.
Vlahovic, down his end, while he has scored goals, has struggled to replicate his Fiorentina form in Turin, scoring ‘just’ 15 goals in 33 appearances for Juventus under Max Allegri.
While he is still finding the back of the net, the Serie A side have been hugely underperforming by their own standards, with them recently losing 2-0 to Milan in the league and 2-0 to Maccabi Haifa in the Champions League on Tuesday.
This has forced some old rumours to re-appear, with vague talk of a potential exit floating around, even if few are taking serious notice of it.
Still, Juventus’ decision to lump on Vlahovic last January hasn’t exactly paid off for them in terms of results, and Fabiana Della Valle, a journalist for Gazzetta dello Sport, gave an interview to Numero Diez, where she talked about what happened behind the scenes 10 months ago, as she was the ‘very first to confirm’ the news of the transfer talks.
She said: “They were surprising days. It was not expected that Juventus would be able to make an investment of this type, especially when you consider the words of those in charge in the days immediately preceding them. It took a few days to materialise, true, but Juventus had already laid the foundations with the Serbian’s agent to understand the feasibility of the deal.
“Juventus would have moved in the summer, but they feared the onslaught of the English (Arsenal above all). The decisive factor was the opening of Fiorentina to the sale. If they had said no, the deal could not have been done. I remember a statement for Daniele Pradè a few days earlier: there I understood that something was happening.”
Therefore, it seems it was Arsenal’s interest that forced Juventus’ hand, with the transfer producing mixed results since.
