No contacts for Jorginho between Juventus and Chelsea — report

Jorginho’s future at Chelsea has been thrown into a bit of uncertainty in recent weeks, with reports claiming that Juventus are looking at the midfielder as a replacement for Miralem Pjanić, maybe even as a swap deal. There was a cursory attempt from Jorginho’s agent to douse the flames, but once the fire’s been lit in the rumor mill, it’s not easy to extinguish it.

However, as per Romeo Agresti of Goal, the actual truth could be much closer to what Jorginho’s agent claimed. According to his report, there have been no contacts between Juventus and Chelsea for the Italy international (by that I mean Jorginho, not Emerson).

While Juventus apparently would be willing to let Pjanić leave, they are not actively trying to offload him — unlike, say, a certain Federico Bernardeschi who has also been linked to Chelsea. And even if a suitable offer does arrive, the Bianconeri’s priority replacement would be to promote Rodrigo Bentancur, who has impressed in the regista position during the few times he has played in that role.

While it is widely acknowledged that Jorginho is a master of the specialized Sarri-ball regista role, money’s bound to be a bit scarce in this COVID-19 football economy. Spending something like €50 million on a 29-year-old midfielder would be quite an extravagant affair, even for a club like Juventus who have been known to keep older stars on their roster.

The report also states that if Juve really do need to purchase another player for that deep-lying midfield role, it would likely be Sandro Tonali of Brescia because of his age.