Juventus Chief Football Officer Fabio Paratici discussed the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic and the upcoming summer transfer window in an interview with Italian broadcaster Sky Sports Italia earlier today.
“There are many good players who can make the jump, for example Chiesa, Tonali, Castrovilli. At the moment the National team is offering a nice showcase to these players. Pogba? He’s a great footballer, but these players have fewer teams able to guarantee this kind of salary.”
He spoke about how it will be difficult for many teams to purchase players outright in the summer, instead suggesting that loans will become a lot more common and complicated.
“There will be exchanges, more creative formulas like long loans. If you can’t buy a house, for example, go rent. If you can’t buy a player from X million, try to ‘rent’ them for as long as possible. A formula that will be exploited in order to be able to take advantage of the players without too much money, by diluting the payments.”
The Juventus director also touched on whether football should consider adapting a transfer market like the NBA’s.
“My idea was just a consideration dictated by the fact that clubs will have more economic difficulties and so you need to have ideas. Studying the various football systems and not, I thought that the NBA could be something to take inspiration from. Obviously, however, it remains a difficult system to replicate.”
Paratici highlighted how Italian clubs should have a second team, in order to allow them to develop players internally.
“Fifteen years ago, this was already being discussed, a good practice that is present in almost all the other more advanced leagues in Europe. And they have had great results, even in terms of training players. When we were given this chance, only we signed up. It’s a project we believe in, it takes a lot of effort but it gives us a lot of satisfaction and we believe it’s the future. Players are sold when they reach 90-100 matches, in other leagues they reach this goal at 21, because they start playing at 17. There’s a hole after the Primavera that brings a player to play that number of games at 24. In this way we lose talent and we lose time. Let’s think about Morata, before he came to us he had already played with Real’s second team. Spinazzola was on loan for eight years before he came back to us because he couldn’t find playing time.”
He discussed the agreement reached between the squad and the management about taking a salary cut, due to the financial impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.
“It was very easy to come to an agreement, first of all because we have champions who understood the times we are living in. Secondly, we have a club that is a guarantor and that the players trust.”
The Juventus director discussed the restart of the league.
“I can’t wait to start again, to see the players and the matches. Having said that, we have to respect the rules. We also need to think about the players who are at risk and who are the most concerned, we need to understand this and the institutions that take responsibility for important decisions, which are really very difficult to take.”
Paratici touched on free transfers, a practice Juventus are known for using.
“The free transfer is not an objective, it’s a possibility that presents itself on the market. We are open and we are trying to build the best possible team, we need to understand where we start from and what it needs.”
He spoke about other players involved in Juventus’ plans for the summer window.
“Higuain? When he left he was very concerned in general. He’s a very sensitive guy. We’re attached to him, he’s having an extraordinary season, so we hope he’ll continue with us for the rest of the year. As far as the Pjanic-Arthur exchange is concerned, we’re always talking between big clubs, but we’re not just talking about players or just exchanges, but also about how we can move forward. Now we’re in a moment of talking.”
Finally, Paratici spoke about the players who are being offered new contracts and the progress of the talks.
“With Buffon and Chiellini, we’re in the home stretch, with Dybala too we’re talking, now there’s been this situation which has interrupted the negotiations.”
