One of the biggest mercato questions this summer was how Juventus and new director Giovanni Carnevali was going to dispose of unwanted players from past regimes. This has been a problem for successive front offices, as exemplified by the fact that Arthur Melo is suiting up for the Bianconeri in their friendly against Standard Liege today.
The immediate fate of at least one of these wantaways will likely be decided by the beginning of next week.
Momentum has been picking up regarding a move for Loïs
Openda to Olympique Lyon, and we’ve gotten to the “here we go” phase from Fabrizio Romano. The terms of the deal, however, aren’t as good as had been expected earlier his week.
According to Romano, Openda’s move will be a dry loan, as opposed to the loan with an option to buy that was reported as recently as Thursday. Juve will reportedly receive a €3 million loan fee. If there’s good news, it’s that, again unlike earlier reporting, Juve will not have to subsidize Openda’s salary. Instead, OL will cover the Belgian’s entire wage, which will give them at least temporary relief on the wage bill front.
The issue with this deal is that it’s only temporary. Selling players they don’t want has been a massive headache for multiple Juve front offices in the last decade or so. Guys like Sami Khedira and Aaron Ramsey had to be released as opposed to sold, and the aforementioned Arthur is still in limbo four years after he was even a small part of the club’s plans. Nico Gonzalez was sent out on a loan with an option to buy last year, and while Atletico Madrid do want him, they want him at a lower price than the option would be.
That said, it isn’t surprising that Lyon want to minimize their risk on this move, considering the horrific season Openda just had in Turin, when he scored just twice in 33 appearances and was an afterthought for Luciano Spalletti in the end stages of the year.
Openda has reportedly been in agreement with the move for several days, but Juve are waiting until after Saturday’s friendly due to the dearth of striker options they will have available with Jeff Ekhator recovering from a knock and Jonathan David—another player Juve are trying to clear, and one that was also linked with Lyon at one point—still on vacation after the World Cup. Arkadiusz Milik is the only other option at striker for the game besides NextGen players.
