Juventus listening to offers for Paulo Dybala

MIAMI GARDENS, FL - JULY 26: Paulo Dybala of Juventus in action during the International Champions Cup 2017 match between Paris Saint Germain and Juventus at Hard Rock Stadium on July 26, 2017 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Daniele Badolato - Juventus FC/Getty Images)
MIAMI GARDENS, FL - JULY 26: Paulo Dybala of Juventus in action during the International Champions Cup 2017 match between Paris Saint Germain and Juventus at Hard Rock Stadium on July 26, 2017 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Daniele Badolato - Juventus FC/Getty Images)

The possibility of Paulo Dybala leaving Juventus has been discussed all summer, but until now there had been no real evidence that Juve was open to such a move.

That changed today when separate reports stated that Juventus was open to discussions about a Dybala sale and that they had received multiple offers for Dybala. He has been linked to Manchester United for most of the month of July and now Tottenham has reportedly joined the race for his signature, with more teams likely to enter the fray now that Juve is listening to offers. A Dybala sale could be used to cover the costs of Juve’s Matthijs de Ligt acquisition or to fund one last big signing to close out the summer transfer window.

Selling Dybala would certainly draw mixed reviews from Juventus fans as opinions about him

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currently vary widely. Some fans still see his potential and put more stock in his first few seasons with the team than this last one and others have given up hope on the striker after his massively disappointing season.

A combination of Ronaldo’s arrival and a permanent switch to the 4-3-3 caused Dybala to have by far his worst season of his Serie A career. He was consistently played out of position on the right wing and couldn’t ever seem to find chemistry with Ronaldo. These struggles led to a minuscule take of only 5 goals and 4 assists in 30 Serie A appearacnes, including 24 starts.

As I have previously discussed, these issues aren’t going to disappear any time soon, with Juve still built to play in the 4-3-3 formation and Ronaldo continuing to be a focal point of their attack. This means that what may be best for both Dybala’s career and Juventus is for him to move on to play somewhere else.

It may seem like a shortsighted move for Juve to sell an extremely talented 25-year-old player who had previous seasons where he scored 19 and 22 goals in the league, but these are the types of tough decisions a team needs to make when trying to compete at the highest levels. Dybala is sure to make fans miss him when they see his performances with whoever his new team may be, but keeping him at Juventus will only force Maurizio Sarri to start him regardless of his performances, much like Massimiliano Allegri did last year.