Juventus are making a habit of selling their Next Gen talent to fuel transfers for the first team, and Wayne Girard plays different perspectives of how this could work for, or against the Old Lady…
Selling Juventus youngsters: A risky game?
It’s either going to work and be the starting point for the next dynasty in Juventus history, or be a chapter of regret. Juventus play a dangerous game by selling their star talents, with Matias Soule and Dean Huijsen coming immediately into focus. But on the flip side, several players have become mainstays in the first squad, such as Nicolo Fagioli, Fabio Miretti, and Kenan Yildiz. Moreover, those who have been sold are seeing their transfer fees repurposed for players in their prime.
Juventus Next Gen was formed in 2018 as a reserve team playing in Serie C, meant to bridge the gap between the Primavera under 19s and first team. It’s an idea envied by most clubs in the rest of the league, as the others continue to struggle with adapting their players from the youth ranks into playing with full grown men. The go-to method has been to loan players out after they have graduated from the Primavera. But more often than not, these players struggle with playing time, or are sent to clubs who play a contrasting style to the ones of their mother-club, and/or suffer psychologically and emotionally without the support system they had been raised with.
Next Gen have solved this issue, and while giving these players more of an opportunity to show merit to play in Serie A, it also increases their value as they benefit from having continuity and familiarity. Now Juventus sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli has built a reliance on the reserve team in order to fund the transfer market. The difficulty is striking the perfect balance of when to butcher the calf (sell), or project them for the starting XI.
In addition to the the aforementioned players, Giuntoli has accelerated the Old Lady’s policy of selling off the Next Gen. In years past, a handful of players were sold off such as Stephy Mavididi who is now at Leicester, Filippo Ranocchia with Palermo, and Manolo Portonova at Genoa. They brought in modest means. The caveat to that situation is when Radu Dragusin was sold to Genoa, who then quadrupled their money just months later after selling him to Tottenham. Giuntoli must have been wondering where he went wrong in evaluating the Romanian defender’s potential.
As of recent, Samuel Iling Junior, Koni De Winter, and Enzo Berrenchea have also been pawned off, but the figures have raised significantly. When combining these transfer fees with Soule and Huijsen, the Bianconeri are looking at a total of approximately 86 million incoming. The outcome is a team who are very near to being completely rebuilt, if and when Teun Koopmeiners joins. The Dutchman will play at the top of the midfield with Douglas Luiz and Khephren Thuram behind him. Thiago Motta will be in charge of one of the most technically and physically strong midfields in Europe.
It will be easy to forget Giuntoli’s big sell-off if Juventus make a push for the Scudetto or a deep run in Europe. If they are able to win the Scudetto or major European trophy, Juventus will receive even more money to invest in the coming years, to the point where they won’t have to consider selling their next Soule, or if they do, will have greater negotiation power.
What happens in the next few years will determine If Juventus have made the right decision or not. Both ideas may just as well end up being true – the Bianconeri will have years of fortune, while many of the players they’ve sold will be highly successful in their own right.
Strategic decisions need to be taken about what we’re building and what stage we’re at in that process before we sell off young talent. Using those proceeds to sign players further along in their development makes sense of done correctly. The profles of players we are targetting (i.e. those entring their primes) could work.
They key for me, is effective balance between trying to get big fees but balancing future upside (i.e. sell-on fees and potentially including buy-back options). Real Madrid are masters of selling their youth players but always having a solid buy-back option in there.
Giuntoli raised an incredible amount from sales – unproven young players, a bunch of nobodies.
Squad rewamped and he also got rid of Lord Hexagon. Exciting times for the serial cheaters!
Giuntoli must have been wondering where he went wrong in evaluating the Romanian defender’s potential…
Except he wasn’t at the club at that time.
Seria anything but you know what