It’s been a busy stretch on the rumor mill, and I think this might be the most interconnected batch of stories we’ve had all summer — a lot of these moves are contingent on other moves, which are contingent on others still.
So let’s get into it, starting with the striker situation that’s somehow gotten more complicated instead of less.
The David dilemma: PSG, Villa, and a Zirkzee contingency plan
Jonathan David’s future is suddenly one of the more interesting subplots of the summer, with two different clubs reportedly circling. PSG are in the mix after selling
Goncalo Ramos to Milan and now needing a backup striker — and this isn’t a cold call, either. One of their advisors, Luis Campos, was sporting director at Lille when he originally brought David to France, so there’s an existing relationship doing some of the legwork here.
Aston Villa have also inquired, with Juve reportedly asking somewhere in the €20-30 million range for the Canadian striker. For what it’s worth, the report suggests David actually wants to stay in Turin and win Spalletti over – which I think says something about how he views his situation here, even with all the links elsewhere.
If David does leave, there’s a contingency plan already in motion: Juve are still talking with Manchester United about Joshua Zirkzee, on loan with a potential option to buy. This one’s tangled up in a few different variables, though David would need to leave to free up space in the striker budget, Spalletti would presumably want a replacement lined up before losing David, and on United’s side the whole thing reportedly hinges on whether Marcus Rashford stays or goes. A lot of dominoes need to fall in a pretty specific order for this to happen.
Bologna standoff could come down to Cabal — or Koopmeiners
The Lucumi pursuit keeps evolving. As we talked about over the weekend, Juve have offered Juan Cabal to Bologna to help close the valuation gap between the two clubs. If Cabal doesn’t cover it, Koopmeiners on loan is apparently the backup plan — with Juve open to covering his full wages for the season.
The numbers involved are pretty specific. On a €20 million sale, Bologna would reportedly owe €4.5 million to Genk, and Juve would apparently cover that piece of the payment on top by picking up Koopmeiners’ wages.
If the Lucumi deal falls through entirely, Juve reportedly have a pivot ready — West Ham’s Jean-Clair Todibo and free agent David Alaba, the latter valued less as a like-for-like replacement and more for his versatility, given his ability to play multiple spots on the left side of the defense.
With Suzuki heading to PSG, Juve could turn to a World Cup winner
Suzuki’s move to PSG increasingly looks like a matter of when, not if, and that’s pushed Juve toward a pretty ambitious replacement target: Athletic Bilbao’s Unai Simon.
I don’t think this is an easy one to pull off, though. Simon was Spain’s starting keeper when they won the World Cup last month, and prying a starting international goalkeeper away from his boyhood club this late in the window is a tall order, in theory at least.
Still, Juventus seem intent on replacing Michele Di Gregorio between the posts, and they also have Tottenham’s Guglielmo Vicario, Freiburg’s Noah Atubolu, and San Lorenzo’s Orlando Gill on their (increasingly long) shortlist. At this point, the question largely seems to be who the new keeper will be rather than if we’ll have a new keeper.
Various Rumored Departures
Tuttosport, relaying Nicolò Schira, reports that Lazio have asked about taking Fabio Miretti on loan, but Juve are only interested in a permanent sale — somewhere around €15 million for the young Italian midfielder. Whether Lazio are willing or able to do a permanent deal instead remains to be seen.
And then there’s the one that feels the furthest out there: Real Madrid supposedly looking at Manuel Locatelli as a fallback option after the Rodri deal from Manchester City didn’t come together. The idea, apparently, is that Jose Mourinho wants someone defensively capable who can still progress the ball — a role Real’s midfield has notably been missing since Toni Kroos retired and Luka Modric left for Milan. I’d file this one under pretty speculative — no reputable source has picked it up, and there’s no indication the two clubs have even talked.
Plenty still to shake out here, and given how many of these stories are tied to each other — David’s exit opening the door for Zirkzee, Cabal’s valuation determining whether Koopmeiners gets pulled into the Lucumi deal — I wouldn’t be surprised if the picture looks pretty different in a week. We’ll keep tracking it as it develops.
