Over the past three years, Juventus have brought in many players, spending a significant amount of money in the process. This summer alone, Juventus have spent roughly €41m on incoming players. But how does Sporting Director Beppe Marotta fare when it comes to selling players surplus to requirements at Vinovo?
Juventus have raised €32.5m through a host of sales in this transfer market. Most of the cash came from the sales of Ciro Immobile for €8m, Simone Zaza for €7.5m (althought Juventus have a buy back option for €15m), Fredrico Peluso for €6.5m and Mirko Vucinic for €6m.
In summer of 2013, Juvnetus raised €26.75 million through the sales of Alessandro Matri for €11m, Felipe Melo for €3.75m, Emanuele Giaccherini for €7.5m and Luca Marrone in a co-ownership deal for €4.5m.
In summer of 2012, Juventus raised €20.55m when showing the door to 17 players and in the summer of 2011, they raised a mere €20m while clearing a whopping 30 players of their roster.
So why am I throwing a bunch of numbers at you? Well, there’s a certain trend to be observed in all these four transfer markets under Beppe Marotta (I am ignoring his first one as he had little time and a big job to do). Marotta has shown an inability to effectively clear these players off Juve’s book on a permanent basis. And when he has been able to achieve that, they have been let go at huge discounts. Let’s look at a few examples:
Ciro Immboile was the top scorer in Serie A last year and moved to Brossuia Dortmund for €19m this summer. Since Juve only owned 50% of his contract, they made somewhere around €8m in profit. One has to wonder how a top scorer in Serie A can be let go of so cheaply, especially when you consider that David Luiz was bought by PSG for €50m…
Felipe Melo was a guy that Juventus payed a cool €25m to bring to Turin. Marotta loaned him to Galatasaray in 2011 with an option to buy at the end of the year. The Turkish club refused to make the move permanent but offered another loan-with-option-to-buy deal. Marotta, unable to find other suitors for Melo even after a decent season in Turkey, agreed to the deal. Well, at the end of the year Galatasaray yet again refused to meet the fee for the Brazilian. Eventually, they made the move permanent on a discounted price of only €3.75m.
Mirko Vucinic was sold to money-rich UAE club Al Jazira for €6m. Though he isn’t the same player as of two years ago, many were disappointed that Marotta was only able to fetch €6m from an Arabian outfit, who are generally known for their deep pockets. Could Marotta have gotten more for Vucinic? Certainly. Only 8 months ago, Juventus and Inter had agreed to a straight swap between Vucinic and Freddy Guarin. Zeint St. Petersburg just bid €12m for Guarin. Surely that means that Marotta could have worked for double the amount of what Juventus received for Vucinic.
Then there comes a line of players that Marotta was unable to offload and are either 1) still on Juve’s book or 2) were let go for free or on huge discounts on their original transfer fees. Paolo De Ceglie, Marco Motta (one has to wonder about the length of contract he signed with Juventus!), Amauri, Almiron, Iaquinta, Ziegler, Elia and Krasic are just some of the few names that Marotta had trouble shipping out of Turin.
Marotta has shown the ability to bring players to Turin and has built a squad that has won 3 Scudettos in a row. But there is no doubt that when it comes to selling players, he has shown a particular weakness, which can then translate into less € € € available in the transfer kitty. As the transfer market approaches an end for this summer, Marotta still has to find new homes for the likes of Pepe, De Ceglie, Motta, Ogbonna and Marrone that have been deemed surplus to requirements by Coach Allegri. Can he finish strong and find them permanent residence elsewhere? Or will Marco Motta be making a return from loan yet again in 2015…
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