While losing 3-1 to Genoa over the weekend certainly wasn’t great, Juventus’ day got even worse with two of their key players suffering bad injuries.
New arrival Dani Alves ended the game with a fractured tibia, while Leonardo Bonucci, arguably one of their best players, is expected to be out of action until mid-January with a hamstring injury.
Such absences have immediately led to Juventus allegedly looking at players capable to replace the pair, hopefully ones that won’t cost them too much money.
According to both Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere dello Sport, one of those happens to be Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic, who has seen his time at Stamford Bridge reduced drastically since Antonio Conte moved to three at the back.
With a contract running out at the end of this season, a move in January certainly wouldn’t be an expensive one, especially due to his age, and that’s what Juventus would be banking on, with the Serbia international capable of playing at both Alves’ and Bonucci’s positions.
While Corriere say the interest for Ivanovic remains ‘tepid’ for the time being, they also make it clear the Serie A champions would be hard pressed to find anyone better in January.
As for Gazzetta dello Sport, they say that Beppe Marotta is thinking about the Chelsea player as a solution to their problem.
The claims are now being picked up by other Italian news outlets, and this story looks like it will become a theme ahead of January.
The interest appears to certainly be there, and depending on how Juventus fare in the near future without their key players, their need for Ivanovic could quickly increase, or decrease if Daniele Rugani and co. prove to be worthy stand ins.