Juventus director Federico Cherubini reveals why Erling Haaland snubbed a move to Turin in 2017 and admits the Bianconeri don’t regret not signing Gigio Donnarumma.
Cherubini replaced Fabio Paratici as the head of the sporting area at Juventus last summer.
And it was a hectic summer for the 50-year-old who sold Cristiano Ronaldo to Manchester United, bringing Moise Kean back to the club.
Cherubini revealed the truth behind Ronaldo’s return to Old Trafford in an interview with Tuttosport, where he also discussed Juventus plans for the future and the club’s targets this season.
“We want a competitive team with a different project with young players that will change the team,” he said.
“If, in the past, there were players with a solid background, now there are different players with a great potential that the coach will have to develop.
“We remain very competitive and we still want to win, but using a different approach.
“However, we also have many champions such as Chiellini, Bonucci, Danilo, Dybala, Morata, Cuadrado and De Ligt and even our young players are already part of their national teams. Our target remains to win,” he continued.
“We already know the budget for the future and how much money we can spend on new signings.
“I am sure we will be able to get other opportunities, signing young prospects, possibly Italians, even if we need to pay attention when making predictions.
“We have to understand which kind of market we’ll face when the pandemic will be over.”
Talking about young and interesting prospects, there was one player Juventus tried to sign in 2017: Erling Haaland.
The Norway international was playing for Molde at that time and snubbed a move to Turin. Do Juventus regret not signing him?
Cherubini reveals truth about Ronaldo’s sale: ‘One difference between Man United and City’
“We do, it would be stupid to say something different. However, things must be put into context.
“Young players can be scared about going out on loan, we were at the beginning of our U23 project and perhaps the perspective we offered him wasn’t too exciting.
“Maybe the idea of going out on loan wasn’t ideal for a player like him. Maybe today, things would be different.”
Gigio Donnarumma is another young yet experienced player who could have joined Juventus last summer. Why didn’t Juventus sign him?
“Because Juventus have an reliable goalkeeper with a long contract [Wojciech Szczesny],” Cherubini said.
“We believe in him and we think he is the ideal solution. For the policy we have, it would make no sense to do what PSG are doing. It wouldn’t be good to have two important goalkeepers in the same team.”
After Ronaldo’s sale, Paulo Dybala has become Juventus’ key player, but the contract of the Argentinean star expires in the summer.
Juventus have had several meetings with his agent Jorge Antun but haven’t reached an agreement yet.
“Even if there’s a tendency to leave the club at the end of the contract, I remain am calm, as it happened with Locatelli, it doesn’t matter if we need one extra meeting to reach an agreement,” the 50-year-old admitted
“Both parties want to reach a satisfying agreement, so we are not forced to close the deal after the second meeting.”
#Cherubini esclusivo su #Tuttosport: «Via #CristianoRonaldo, abbiamo anticipato il futuro» ⬇️ https://t.co/i1uiDu1ozz
— Tuttosport (@tuttosport) September 9, 2021
not signing Don was a MASSIVE mistake.
Cherubini sounds like yet another delusional moron. Lots of words and zero substance – and claiming Donnaruma is basically same level as Szczesny let’s me know this guy can’t be taken seriously. Can’t wait til he’s replaced with another moron in two years and another four disastrous transfer windows.
not signing donurumma was a massive mistake. because the signs were there last season. Tek cost juve like 9 points last season with his blunder. then went to the euros and did nonsense.