Nemanja Matić is once again front page news in Italy, this time on Corriere dello Sport, who lead with the Chelsea midfielder alongside Fiorentina standout Federico Bernardeschi, both of whom are supposedly prime targets for Juventus.
The trouble with Matić as far as Juventus are concerned isn’t the supposed interest from Inter and Manchester United, it’s the asking price, set at €45m (£40m), which is roughly the same amount Chelsea just spent on Matić’s replacement, Tiemoué Bakayoko. According to the newspaper, Matić has thus requested a personal hearing with Marina Granovskaia to “convince the club to reduce the demands and thus facilitate the transfer”.
Front page of #CdS
— Arjun Pradeep (@IndianRegista) July 17, 2017
-> #Juve
-> Juve strike two targets: Ready to close #Matić & #Bernardeschi
-> Decisive days for #Fiorentina's talent pic.twitter.com/xmNm53Domx
With just two years left on his contract and the 28-year-old seemingly not factoring into Chelsea’s plans this season at all after he was made to train separately last week and is now set to not travel with the team on the preseason tour of Asia, lowering the asking price to get a deal done may be a necessary step at this point, especially if Chelsea remain adamant about not selling to Manchester United. Previous reports indicated that Matić wanted to go to United, but if he’s also happy with Juventus, settling for a slightly lower transfer fee is a small price to pay for not selling to a rival.