Juventus midfielder Miralem Pjanic has turned down advances from Chelsea in hope that Barcelona will come calling for him.
According to a report published by Marca, Juventus star Miralem Pjanic is only interested in joining Barcelona this summer and as such has turned down an offer from Chelsea, who are also keen on signing him.
Pjanic joined Juventus from AS Roma in 2016 for €32 million during the peak of his career, and has delivered exemplary performances since, despite playing in several different roles for them. The Bosnian has moved to a considerably deeper role since the appointment of Maurizio Sarri who deploys him as a deep-lying playmaker as the last man in midfield.
Through the 2019/20 campaign, Pjanic has scored three goals and set up four more for his teammates. These numbers are indicative of his positional shift under new management.
The 30-year-old has been a man in demand this summer, linked to the likes of Chelsea, PSG, and most shockingly, Barcelona. However, this has more to do with the fact that Juventus want to bolster their midfield with younger players in a similar position, and subsequently have been linked with the likes of Arthur, Jorginho and Sandro Tonali among others.
This move would be nonsensical in every way you can perceive for Barcelona, who have the likes of Carles Aleña and Riqui Puig waiting in the sidelines.
Bringing in a player who is past his peak only for him to halt the progress of the aforementioned possible world-beaters already sounds quite bad. And when you consider the Blaugrana were planning to swap Arthur for Pjanic, it gets worse. The two are essentially a carbon copy of one another, except the former is yet to hit his prime.
As for Chelsea, however, Pjanic could turn out to be a fine player, especially if they are planning to swap Jorginho for him. The two, too, are extremely similar players, but much closer, age-wise. Moreover, Chelsea could receive plenty of cash in this deal which could help them boost their defence, as they so desperately need to.
The Blues have already signed Hakim Ziyech and are set to spend big on Timo Werner as well, which could leave them short on funds to strengthen in other positions. The deal with Juventus could be key to fund moves for top left-back target Ben Chilwell, as well as a new goalkeeper.
The report also says that PSG had lined up to chase Pjanic’s signature, but the Bosnian has stayed optimistic about his chances to land a deal with Barcelona. The former Roma midfielder has been the talk of the transfer town recently and it will be interesting to see how this transfer unfolds in the next few weeks.
