Power ranking Tuttosport’s list of untouchable Juventus players
With the hopes of Juventus winning the Scudetto having gone up in smoke in a few short weeks in February, the talk of next season’s plans have become more and more of a talking point within the Italian press.
Who stays? Who goes? Who is hanging in the balance no matter what their contract situation is like?This is something that of folks are thinking about — and Turin-based outlet Tuttosport is most certainly one of them. (Because, really, they love them transfer rumors and roster speculation like I love a lazy Sunday when Juve has already played the day before.)
Part of that speculation from Tuttosport over the last week or so has involved who they feel — or maybe know? — are untouchable players on Juventus’ roster. Those seven untouchable players, according to Tuttosport, are: Bremer, Danilo, Tiago Djaló, Manuel Locatelli, Nicolo Fagioli, Andrea Cambiaso and Kenan Yildiz.
You’ll notice there’s no Dusan Vlahovic or Federico Chiesa on Tuttosport’s list. There’s no Adrien Rabiot no matter how much of a favorite of Max Allegri he is mainly due to the fact that he’s out of contract in the summer — again. There’s none of the youngsters who are currently out on loan around Serie A, namely Dean Huijsen and Matias Soulé, because it might be a little hard to currently determine where they fit into things for next season.
Is seven the right number when it comes to who should or shouldn’t be considered untouchable? Probably depends on how you feel about the current state of Juventus’ roster heading into a summer in which Cristiano Giuntoli and Giovanni will hopefully have the chance to add more than one or two players on a permanent basis. (But with Juve’s financial standing at the moment, you never really know!)
But this has given yours truly the opportunity to think out loud a bit and think about of those seven players listed above, who really is the most important for Juventus’ future going forward the next year or two. So, let’s just go ahead and play the game.
7) Tiago Djaló
This is pretty easy for the simple reason that he has yet to play a single second for Juventus.
That is no surprise considering he is nearly a year removed from major knee surgery and hadn’t played at all for Lille before his move to Turin. Throw in the fact that Max Allegri has been somebody who always plays it safe and quite slowly with these kinds of matters, and you’ve got a guy in Djaló who will probably be playing a limited number of minutes the rest of the season.
But when it comes to Djaló, I keep coming back to something Julien Laurens said on ESPN a few weeks back when the transfer was nearly across the finish line. If not for Djaló being injured and in the final year of his contract, he’s a player who’s likely fetching a transfer fee of €30-€40 million.
Maybe if we play this kind of game a year from now, Djaló is higher up on the list because he is showing that he’s very much the player he was before his injury. Or maybe he’s just a part-time player that could be looking to leave Turin after a less-than stellar first 12 months with Juve. But there’s no denying that the 2024-25 season is important for Djaló’s career as a whole and just where he might fit into Juventus’ plans going forward.
6) Nicolo Fagioli
If not for being involved in Italy’s quick burn of a betting scandal this past fall, Fagioli would have been higher on this list. That’s mainly because he would actually be playing in games.
But because Fagioli hasn’t played in a game since the first day of October, it’s hard to really know what kind of player we’re going to see after his seven-month suspension is over. The timing of that suspension means Fagioli won’t play again this season (although he could be eligible for selection for Juve’s season finale), something that could have been a lot worse had he not quickly negotiated a plea deal that involves plenty of treatment for his gambling addicition.
Even though he is suspended, Fagioli has been able to train with his Juventus teammates ever since the deal was reached. That is obviously a big deal when compared to somebody like Paul Pogba who has been rarely seen around anything involving Juve since his own provisional suspension was put into place.
By the time Fagioli appears in a friendly next summer, it will have been at least nine months since he played in a game. Outside of any new signings, he will be one of the players with the most interest surrounding simply because of what has happened these past five months. Let’s just hope that he comes with a clear mind and leaves his gambling issues in the past once and for all.
5) Danilo
This is easily a spot in which any of these three middle guys could land.
But it feels like the biggest thing hurting Juventus’ captain is the simple fact that while he’s still a very good player, he is going to be turning 33 years old in mid-July and there just isn’t much certainty how much longer he can keep up at the level he has played for the better part of the last three or four years.
We’ve seen this season that injuries have started to become more of a worry, and it’s not like that is going to suddenly go away as he heads into the final year of his contract next season.
Don’t get me wrong, Danilo is very much an important piece to the puzzle no matter if it’s Allegri or somebody else managing this team next season. He is the captain and the emotional leader of a team that has been through a lot over the last 18 months.
But this time next year, as Danilo is heading toward his 35th birthday, are you going to feel comfortable with him getting another contract extension? As much as Danilo the leader is appreciated, it’s Danilo the player in his mid-30s that is still a bit of an unknown.
4) Manuel Locatelli
For a good number of people, Locatelli could end up being the one who takes the captain’s armband from Danilo if in fact the Brazilian’s contract isn’t extended beyond next season. And for somebody who looks to have taken on a bigger leadership role both on the field and off of it over the last season or two, that could very well be a logical choice.
When it comes to on-field matters, though, Locatelli is very much somebody who Juve’s midfield needs. It’s not like that’s suddenly going to change any time soon no matter how much the rest of Juventus’ midfield seems to be in flux heading into the summer transfer window.
While he very much is not the regista that he is want to be by the man who writes the starting lineups out, he has proven to be the kind of steadying presence this season that Juve’s midfield has needed. Fact is, unless there’s multiple major signings in the midfield this coming summer, Locatelli will continue to be a key cog in the wheel.
He’s being asked to do a different kind of role than he had under Roberto Di Zerbi at Sassuolo, but he has developed into the kind of defensive midfielder that hopefully can play better and better as the level of those around him goes up as well.
3) Andrea Cambiaso
I feel like it’s safe to say that any sort of preseason predictions that you might have had for Cambiaso and his first season with Juventus have probably been surpassed.
He has not only come in and now fully established himself as a starter, but Cambiaso is now one of the more important pieces Juve have when it comes to their team. He’s done that while playing as a wingback. And he’s done it while playing on the right wing when we thought mostly all of his work will come on the left.
While Filip Kostic has struggled to get his season really anything close to on track, Cambiaso’s impact — especially in the attacking phase — is being felt one way or another most weekends. It’s the kind of season in which he could have very well put himself on the cusp on an Italian national team call-up even with the swath of fullbacks that Italy currently has.
More importantly, for a club that has been in desperate need of somebody to emerge as a very good option out wide as a wingback/fullback, Cambiaso has done quite a good job of filling that void. And no matter if it comes as a wingback or a fullback in the future, Cambiaso, at 24 years old, is very much somebody who is part of this club’s future.
2) Kenan Yildiz
This is about potential.
This is all about potential.
Because when you have an 18-year-old kid who looks to have all the potential in the world, you not only try and keep him for the long term but you also try and use it in the present.
Sure, the sample size for Yildiz is still very small compared to everybody else on this list of untouchable. He hasn’t even played 600 minutes in Serie A this season and has cooled off from his red-hot start to life as a starter from back in December.
But we know why Yildiz is deemed untouchable in Tuttosport’s eyes — he arrived with big hype and that has only grown in the 18 or so months that he’s been at Juventus.
This summer is bound to involve teams trying to pry Yildiz from Juventus’ grasp. There are already rumors that Arsenal are circling and want to spend upward of €40 million to bring the young Turk to England. But if Juventus are of the standing that Yildiz is untouchable and essentially a building block for the future, then anything sort of a once-in-a-generation offer this summer won’t be enough to convince them to sell Yildiz.
Yildiz, like some of the other names on this list, has signed a contract extension this season. He is locked in until 2028 with there being reports that Juve already want to extend that by another year and likely another pay raise to boot.
Fact is, as Vlahovic and Chiesa enter a summer in which their futures don’t totally seem certain, at least there’s the fact that Yildiz is only waiting for the chance for his role to only continue to grow a lot like a teenaged Paul Pogba a decade ago.
1) Bremer
As much as Yildiz is about potential, Bremer is most definitely about the present day. And the present day suggests this season has been one in which Bremer and his broad shoulders have established himself as one of the better yet still underrated central defenders in Europe.
The reported interest that Bremer is already receiving and will certainly get come the summertime from big-money Premier League clubs will reflect the season that he’s had this year. And as much as getting upward of €80 million for Bremer would probably do wonders for Juventus’ finances and balancing the books, the thing you always have to think about is what would come after that. When Matthijs de Ligt left for Bayern Munich, Bremer was right there for the taking and coming off a great season with Torino.
Is there that kind of potential replacement now? I don’t know because the best defender going in Serie A right now is arguably the same dude who replace de Ligt.
With a fresh contract extension in his back pocket from a couple of months ago, Bremer seems like he has no desire to leave Juventus and experience a new league and a new country after arriving from Brazil nearly six years ago? (For the record, he did extend his contract with Torino in February 2022 only to sign with Juve — and not Inter he he — four months later, so there’s that.)
But when it comes to the players who are vital to Juve’s success going forward, Bremer is very much going to be the one in which the defense should be build around.
