Juventus director of football Cristian Giuntoli has confirmed that Chelsea made a bid for striker Dusan Vlahovic this summer, but never got close to their demands.
The Juventus director has been speaking to La Repubblica, relayed by Tutto Juve, regarding the summer transfer window and one of the big stories from it.
Reports throughout the summer linked Juventus and Chelsea with a potentially huge swap deal that would have seen Vlahovic move to Stamford Bridge in exchange for cash and Romelu Lukaku.
It was made clear, though, that Chelsea had a limit on the amount of money they were willing to stump up as part of the deal and they never went beyond that, which was seemingly below Juventus’ asking price.
In the end a deal was not done, with Vlahovic staying where he was and Lukaku going on loan to Roma instead.
That’s worked out well for Vlahovic, who has reinvented himself at the beginning of this season, but not Chelsea, who have sorely been missing a central striker from matchday one.
Giuntoli has now revealed the background to the talks, admitting that they would have sold had the Blues gone higher.
“In the summer we confirmed Rabiot, redeemed Milik, brought in Weah and Cambiaso to go in the direction we indicated,” he said.
“On Lukaku, there was Chelsea’s offer for Vlahovic. We didn’t want to sell Dusan but given certain numbers we would have accepted. Chelsea never reached that figure, and the exchange was not made.”
