Having lost Giorgio Chiellini to the MLS and facing the prospect of having to sell Matthijs de Ligt, Juventus are currently looking around for potential replacements.
The first condition would be for the incoming player to be left-footed, which is why we have seen Arsenal’s Gabriel Magalhães linked with a move to Italy over the past few weeks.
With Chelsea seemingly pushing for De Ligt, Gazzetta dello Sport look at the the Gunners’ Brazilian in more detail, as he is ‘the chosen one to replace’ the Netherlands international, ‘even if Max Allegri would be happy to welcome Kalidou Koulibaly as an alternative’.
They look at his pros (passing ability, goalscoring ability, speed and ability to defend in the open field) and his cons (‘needs to improve his reading and limit distractions’), before adding he might defend ‘too cleanly’, not conceding enough fouls.
Basically, ‘he does not yet have Chiellini’s wickedness, but Allegri could work on it’.
While he might be the right man, Juventus need to ‘undermine Arsenal’s resistance’, because, on paper, the centre-back isn’t for sale.
In fact, ‘why should the Gunners deprive themselves of such a prospect?’, regardless of whether or not William Saliba is returning from his loan at Marseille.
The problem is the Frenchman wants to start, having excelled in the south of France, while Benjamin White is currently ‘immovable’, meaning that this could be the chance for Arsenal to make a ‘nice capital gain’ on Gabriel.
The price would be ‘at least €40m’, seen as ‘a lot, but probably not too much for a strong 24-year-old with a contract that will only expire in 2025’.
The plus side is that his current wages ‘can easily be improved’ by Juventus, and the fact the Serie A side ‘are whetting the appetite of the player’s new agent (Giuliano Bertolucci), with whom relations have been good for some time’ is a good sign.
We’ll have to wait and see about all this, and the choice will ultimately be Mikel Arteta’s at Arsenal.
