Ex Lille Defender Already A Headache For Juventus After Transfer Battle With Inter Milan

Tiago Djalo is already proving a headache for Juventus just months after they gazumped Inter Milan to sign him.

This is highlighted in today’s print edition of Rome-based newspaper Corriere dello Sport, via FCInterNews.

Juventus pulled off a transfer coup by signing defender Djalo from Lille in January.

The Portuguese had been in talks with Inter for several months.

The Nerazzurri had identified Djalo as a free transfer opportunity for this summer. That was because his contract with Lille had been set to expire at the end of June.

Therefore, Inter were laying the groundwork to sign Djalo when his deal ran out.

That type of deal would hardly be without precedent for Inter. This summer alone the Nerazzurri have signed both Mehdi Taremi and Piotr Zielinski on free transfer deals.

But Lille were not keen to lose Djalo for free. The January transfer window therefore represented their last opportunity to cash in on him.

The Ligue 1 club made no secret of the fact that they wanted to sell Djalo.

And Juventus sensed an opportunity. They moved in and secured an agreement with both the player and with Lille to sign Djalo on a cut-price fee.

Tiago Djalo A Headache For Juventus After Transfer Coup Over Inter

But as it has turned out, so far getting one over on Inter has proven the highlight of Juventus’s signing of Djalo.

Last season, the Portuguese played a grand total of sixteen minutes under Max Allegri.

If the Bianconeri had hoped that Djalo’s arrival would be just what they needed to overtake Inter in the title race, precisely the opposite occurred.

Juventus saw their imperious league form enter free fall right after Djalo arrived. Inter, on the other hand, pulled away in the table.

This summer, the departure of Allegri and Thiago Motta’s arrival to replace him could herald a sea change for Djalo at Juventus.

But thus far there has been little evidence of that.

The 24-year-old performed little better than any other Bianconeri players in a 0-3 friendly defeat against Nuremberg.

Juventus may already even be thinking of offloading Djalo.

The worry for the Bianconeri is that, having done so well to nip in and sign the defender ahead of their Derby d’Italia rivals Inter, the results on the pitch may never live up to that transfer coup.