Fabio Paratici’s busy summer continues as Nicolò Schira reports that he’s set his sights on Juventus outcast João Mário. The Portuguese rightback hasn’t taken off in Turin since joining from Porto for €12 million last summer and the arrival of Zeki Çelik probably signals the end of his Bianconero career. My guess is that Juve would take anything over €9 million for him, as that would clear him off the books. The sides supposedly are wrangling about the format of the deal—a loan with an option or an obligation—which
usually means there’s fire along with the smoke.
As a player, I like João Mário just fine. He’s your classic quick, dribbly fullback, always looking to get forward and stretch play on the last line. He’s got the pace to chase balls in behind and the technical ability to beat his marker in tight spaces, along with a passing range and vision that’s above average for his position. He’s a fine crosser and occasionally hits a good channel ball. On the right team (i.e. one where he doesn’t have to defend at all because boy howdy is he an adventure back there), he could be a lot of fun.
That’s the problem, though: since leaving Porto, it’s all gone a bit wrong. Our friends at BWRAO think his move to Juve was linked to Alberto Costa going the other way but João Mário never fit, making just 2 league starts under Igor Tudor and Luciano Spalletti and getting farmed out to Bologna in the winter transfer window. Vincenzo Italiano got a bit more from him and the Rossoblu reportedly wanted to keep him, offering yet another rightback swap for Emil Holm, but salary concerns scuppered the deal and sent him back to the Allianz.
Normally, I’d be all for grabbing a flawed but talented player who’s available for cheap. In this circumstance, though, I really don’t understand the reasoning. For one thing, there’s the salary. Paratici’s quest to slash the wage bill makes sense; buying a player who’s on €3.7 million a year doesn’t. Too, the Viola just added creepy sex pest Alex Jimenez on loan with a €20 million option. That’s a lot of investment in a single position for a team not playing in Europe.
The only way it adds up is if Paratici and Fabio Grosso view one of João Mário or Jimenez as a winger rather than a fullback. Despite Fabio Parisi making that switch last year, I’m always skeptical of that transition, which works better in video games than real life. Most fullbacks can’t play on the turn and need to receive the ball with space in front of them, which makes them very one-dimensional as wingers. Perhaps João Mário or Jimenez is another exception but I don’t really see it.
The other bummer is that adding another rightback will confirm what we’ve known for some time: Dodô is gone. The diminutive Brazilian is in the last year of his contract and has quietly been at loggerheads with management over an extension for years. Beyond being an excellent player (and Fiorentina’s best rightback since what, Tomáš Ujfaluši?), his smiley demeanor and fiery competitive nature has endeared him to fans in a way that few players of recent vintage have. Seeing him leave is going to sting.
That’s not João Mário’s fault, of course, and if he does end up in Florence I’ll root for him to win the starting job, even though his salary makes him too expensive as a pure talent play on a discount and his positional redundancy with Jimenez and Dodô (for now) means he wouldn’t address a position of need. As Paratici keeps stockpiling players, I can’t help but wonder how it’s all supposed to work in the ledger.
