Juventus is under reconstruction

With the services of Andrea Pirlo, Reto Ziegler, Stephan Lichtsteiner and Arturo Vidal secured Juventus will now go after Guiseppe Rossi. After a deceiving 2010/11 Serie A season where they finished in seventh place and missed the chance to clinch an European competition berth, Juventus began to work in its reconstruction by bringing a man of the house to reaplace coach Luigi Del Neri, and the chosen one was former midfielder Antonio Conte. With that done it was now time of assuring Conte a competitive roster, and the club decided to secure Alessandro Matri, Fabio Quagliarella, Simone Pepe and Marco Motta as permanent signings, resulting in a strong investment of € 37 million. But the Old Lady’s reconstruction wasn’t going to stop there since the analysis from the past two seasons –finished in 7th place both times- unveiled that many players didn’t meet the expectations and the club was in need of more signings. Juventus then went after midfielder Andrea Pirlo from Milan, defender Stephan Lichtsteiner from Lazio, and left wing Reto Ziegler from Sampdoria. And they didn’t stop there, for this week a new player has joined the club: Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Arturo Vidal. A € 12 million move brought the Chile International to Juventus, club with whom he will be linked for the next five years. Other big clubs like Bayern Munich and Milan showed their interest in the 24-year-old midfielder, but it was finally the Old Lady who won the bid. Their next objective is Villareal’s Guiseppe Rossi, the American born Italian striker that has scored 51 goals in 127 appearances with the Yellow Submarine. At the beginning of the summer his name was linked to Barcelona, but the € 30 million fee that his team requested became an obstacle. Although Juventus was initially after Atletico de Madrid’s Sergio Kun Aguero, his rescission clause of € 45 million plus taxes is out of their budget, reason why they have now placed their eyes on the 24-year-old forward. According to Rossi’s agent, Federico Pastorello, there are reasons to believe that the deal will be done for the negotiations between clubs are going in the right direction. While Rossi’s future continues to be discussed, Juventus will be traveling to America for three preseason friendly matches: on July 23 at Toronto, Canada they will play Sporting, on the 26th at New York, United States versus Club America and against Chivas de Guadalajara at Raleigh, USA on the 28th. Eight players have been discarded for the tour: Mohamed Lamine Sissoko, Vicenzo Iaquinta, Albin Ekdal, Sergio Bernardo Almiron, Felipe Melo, Yago, Fabio Grosso and Amauri, which means that an exit must be found for them. In Brazil there is a strong interested to repatriate 31-year-old striker Amauri and 28-year-old midfielder Felipe Melo from Flamengo and Corinthians respectively. As for the rest their careers will most likely continue in Europe. As of press time this is the outlook for Conte in his challenge to put the Old Lady back on the map, after four seasons winless since their return to the Serie A.