In shocking news, the media reports that Juventus are offering Dusan Vlahovic to Manchester United in exchange for Joshua Zirkzee.
The Dutch striker joined the Old Trafford outfit following an impressive season with Italian Serie A club Bologna. He did not score too many goals, but his overall play and the 11 goals he scored in 34 league games for the club were important for Thiago Motta, who was manager of the club at the time.
With those goals, Bologna were able to make it into the UEFA Champions League for the first time in this century, which sparked wild celebrations in their home city. Both Zirkzee and Motta would end up leaving the club ahead of the 2024/25 season, however, with the former Bayern Munich man ending up at Man United and the tactician ending up at Juventus.
Motta is currently the only coach who is unbeaten in league football but his win-to-draw ratio as Juventus manager is not good enough for them to sit at the top of the table. They sit in fifth place, in fact, 12 points off Napoli at the top of the table.
The chief reason is due to their lacklustre performances in front of goal. They have only scored 30 goals in 20 matches, 13 less than second-placed Atalanta BC and 15 less than third-placed Inter Milan, who are the top two scorers in the league.
Therefore, in a bid to correct this going into the second half of the season, Motta is looking to bring in Zirkzee, the striker whose efforts were pivotal to his team’s scoring form last season. To do this, he is willing to sacrifice Vlahovic, who Juventus battled to sign over three seasons ago.
The surprising report claims that one of the reasons why Motta is looking to part ways with the Serbian striker is that he has 18 months left on his contract and has shown no indication that he plans to stay. Moving him on swiftly could help them recoup some funds while United also get rid of a player who is currently not a fan favourite – Zirkzee has been subjected to many boos and sarcastic cheers in recent times, which have been chastised by many other fans and media personalities.
A move to the Premier League has long been touted for Vlahovic, however. Arsenal and Chelsea were touted as potential destinations, with reports from October 2024 stating that the Gunners had even gone ahead to watch the player once again because of their striker situation.
