Juventus has had an absolutely massive month of July and they don’t appear to be slowing down during this transfer window.
There are still plenty of rumors circulating around Juventus, including their desire to bring back Paul Pogba, but the most interesting current rumors revolve around the strikers they currently own and those they might add to the squad. Juve has been reported to have interest in bringing in Mauro Icardi or Romelu Lukaku (the second might just be to pressure Inter into making a deal for Icardi). However, to make either of these moves Juve would need to offload some players because of the spending they have already done this summer to bring in Matthijs de Ligt, Cristian Romero, and Merih Demiral.
They have been trying to get rid of Gonzalo Higuain, but he doesn’t want to leave, and Mario Mandzukic who reportedly hasn’t gotten any interest from other teams. That leaves Juve with only one striker who could viably be sacrificed to add Lukaku or Icardi and that is Moise Kean. The problem is that this would be the wrong move for Juve.
Moise Kean was simply fantastic for Juventus last season once he was finally given a chance. In fact, you could make the argument that he was Juve’s best striker last year. It took until 2019 for him to actually get a start, but he made sure it wouldn’t take long for him to get back on the field when he scored against Bologna in that first start. From there he added 6 goals in his next 7 appearances, with the only two matches he didn’t score in being substitute appearances that lasted 1 and 17 minutes. During that run he also added 2 goals for the Italian National Team in Euro qualifiers.He didn’t score the rest of the season after that run, but his issues accompanied scoring issues for the squad as a whole.
Even with his late season struggles, he showed that he has a ton of potential for this Juve team during that run and even showed his versatility with an appearance the wing for Italy and was trusted with a substitute appearance when Juve was making their incredible comeback against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League. It should be clear that Moise Kean needs to be a part of Juve’s future.
On the other hand, Lukaku is coming off of his lowest scoring Premier League season since 2014-
More from Serie A
- Update on Leonardo Bonucci’s legal action against Juventus
- Romelu Lukaku and the betrayal of Inter Milan
- Report: Piotr Zieliński set to sign a new deal with SSC Napoli
- The man rumored to replace Kim Min-Jae: Who is Napoli target Robin Le Normand?
- Are Napoli finally Scudetto-bound? It sure looks like it
15 and second lowest scoring Premier League season of his entire career. The rumors about Lukaku also seem to just be Juve posturing to force Inter into a move for Icardi to stop Juve from competing with them for Lukaku. Even the rumors about a Dybala for Lukaku swap seem far-fetched because Juve has a higher valuation of Dybala than Lukaku. Even if Juventus was actually interested in acquiring Lukaku, he is a terrible fit. He isn’t versatile up front and isn’t particularly efficient with his chances.
That leaves Mauro Icardi, whose last season could only be described as disastrous. It was by far his lowest scoring season with Inter Milan and it was marred by his off-field issues, which included being stripped of his captaincy and the mid-season absence that followed it. You only need to look at his 3 20+ goal seasons to see that his on-field performance this season was a fluke, but his off-field issues should be a deal breaker for a team with a new coach and plenty of media attention already.
There is also the issue of age. While Mauro Icardi certainly isn’t old at 26 years of age, Moise Kean could potentially start for Juve for over a decade at only 19 years old. Juventus hasn’t really focused on bringing in young talent later and it shows. The squad’s two most important players (Ronaldo and Chiellini) are both in their 30s and Juventus doesn’t regularly start many players under the age of 27. If they hold on to Kean then they would have a young core of Kean, de Ligt, Rodrigo Bentancur, Adrien Rabiot, and Joao Cancelo to build around, which would make things much easier for Juventus in the coming years if they didn’t have so many aging players to find replacements for.
It may seem like Juventus needs a high-profile striker to finally win the Champions League trophy that has been eluding them for so long, but all they really need is somebody who fits their system and can provide a secondary scoring option to take some pressure off of Ronaldo. Moise Kean is the best choice to fill that role right now and for years to come.