With Pep Guardiola a dream, Juventus are going around Europe trying to find a new manager to replace Max Allegri at the end of the season.
Maurizio Sarri appears to be the likeliest option according to recent reports, but the Serie A champions are still trying to get something done for Mauricio Pochettino.
The Tottenham manager has hinted he could leave the London club if he managed to win the Champions League, which has given Juventus hope.
However, in order to have the Argentine on their bench, they need to deal with a certain Daniel Levy, who happens to be very attached to the 47-year-old.
This would mean some tough negotiations, and, according to a couple of sources in Italy, Fabio Paratici and co. have come up with a strategy that could see them avoid direct negotiations for the manager.
TuttoMercatoWeb got the ball rolling on Wednesday, stating Juventus were looking at ‘inserting’ one of Kieran Trippier or Christian Eriksen in a deal taking Pochettino to Turin.
This was then corroborated by Gazzetta dello Sport and Calciomercato journalist Nicolo Schira, who explained on Thursday ‘the wall’ surrounding Pochettino at Tottenham ‘could fall by buying a player as compensation for the Argentine coach’.
Now, maybe it’s just us but, if you’re Spurs, selling Trippier to Juventus and letting Pochettino go as part of the deal makes little sense.
Even if the Serie A champions pay over the odds for the England international, they would still have to agree on the amount of the extra-money, which would act as compensation for the manager, thus negotiating for his exit.
If that is the case, why not just directly negotiate for Pochettino.
Surely Juventus selling a player (let’s say Joao Cancelo) to Tottenham and the Argentine manager going the other way makes far more sense?
If the Italians want €60m for the Portuguese right-back, they tell Spurs they can have him for €40m, with the €20m discount acting as compensation for the manager.
This would also, in this hypothetical world, allow Daniel Levy to trump Manchester City to a player Pep Guardiola is interested in.
Still with us? If you are, well done.
We’re just trying to make sense of things here.
