Juventus director Beppe Marotta confirmed Axel Witsel will arrive, in January or next summer, but “we can’t force Domenico Berardi.”
The transfer guru spoke to Rai Sport programme Zona 11 last night and covered several hot topics in the papers at the moment.
This includes the failed deadline day swoop for Belgium international Witsel, as Zenit St Petersburg pulled the plug.
Juventus director Beppe Marotta confirmed Axel Witsel will arrive, in January or next summer, but “we can’t force Domenico Berardi.”
The transfer guru spoke to Rai Sport programme Zona 11 last night and covered several hot topics in the papers at the moment.
This includes the failed deadline day swoop for Belgium international Witsel, as Zenit St Petersburg pulled the plug.
“Witsel is a player who will be a free agent in June and, if Zenit are prepared to open negotiations in January, we will bring forward what is already a concrete objective for next summer.”
The reason Witsel’s signature was left to the last minute was another stalled negotiation with Paris Saint-Germain for Blaise Matuidi.
“There is a veto from Paris Saint-Germain and they do not want to sell Matuidi.”
Juventus had an option to buy Italy Under-21 international Berardi from Sassuolo for €25m, but it was agreed by all parties that it would not be activated over the summer.
While Inter are pushing hard for forward and Sassuolo insist they could keep him next season too, what is the situation?
“I will not deny that we evaluated Berardi very carefully indeed,” replied Marotta.
“He is an important talent for Sassuolo and the Nazionale, but if the player expressed and continues to express he doesn’t want to wear the Juve jersey, we certainly can’t force the situation.”
Marotta also commented on Stephan Lichtsteiner, who will be a free agent at the end of the season and was surprisingly dropped from the Champions League squad.
“He is a player whose contract is running down and he deserves all our admiration. He is a great professional, but you play football with 11 men and at Juve you must accept there are choices. I hope he wants to understand that.”