When you’re constantly chopping and changing managers, selling players you’ve spent millions on just months later and relying so heavily on Lionel Messi to pull a rabbit of a hat every single game, of course, you’re going to struggle. This mentality from the top trickles down to the squad’s performance and even the academy. La Masia is a shadow of its former self, but we’ll leave that discussion for another day.
Now Juventus, who I haven’t questioned enough in this piece so far. As talented as Arthur is, he’s not worth £72.5 million period. Given the sheer list of players the Bianconeri have on their roster, and their astronomical wages, it’s quite unbelievable how they can afford this. There will be departures in the upcoming transfer window, no doubt. Khedira, Rabiot and Ramsey are all set to leave Turin, which frees up space for the wages they need. Especially considering they’re offering Arthur a staggering €5 million more than his current Barcelona deal.
But despite the credit the Old Lady get for their free transfers historically, this latest batch has not been successful. Rabiot has completely failed to stake a claim for his place in the squad. Given his reputation as a difficult to deal with player, they may struggle to shift him on. Ramsey hasn’t been so bad. The Welshman hasn’t done badly at all when he has played. The issues are, given his injury record and the staggering £450,000 per week contract he is on, Juventus can’t afford to keep him.
Which does make me wonder how they can offer Arthur such a significant rise in his salary, given they’re getting rid of Ramsey to balance to the books. Is Maurizio Sarri really that keen to sign him that he is willing to part ways with a handful of his other midfielders? I’m not a financial expert or aware of Juventus’ financial status. But it just doesn’t seem cost-effective spending so much on Arthur, given the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on TV money and overall club revenues.
Furthermore, it’ll prove to be hard to sell Ramsey and Rabiot, who would have to accept significant wage cuts if they were to move to anywhere else in Europe. This is all happening while they’re paying Cristiano Ronaldo’s salary. That’s one hell of a wage bill.
Summary – A mess of deal, but worse for Barcelona
Arthur Melo, a young talented midfielder, wants to stay at Barcelona, but is clearly being forced out by the club who are spending money on an older, arguably worse player. That sums up everything wrong at the Camp Nou. Meanwhile in Italy, Juventus have one hell of job ahead of them to balance the books. If they can negotiate a good fee with Barcelona for Pjanic, perhaps it could turn out to be a worthwhile deal. Which as aforementioned, from what we’ve seen of Barcelona’s recruitment arm, doesn’t look too difficult. Either way, it’s a mess of deal that hurts the Blaugrana more in my opinion.
James Wills is Based in Cape Town and loves playing football from the young age, He has covered All the news sections in TasteOfFootball and have been the best editor, He wrote his first NHL story in the 2013 and covered his first playoff series, As a Journalist in TasteOfFootball Ron has over 8 years of Experience.