Paratici: 'Dybala interest and discussions'

By Football Italia staff

Juventus director Fabio Paratici confirmed Paulo Dybala “interest and discussions,” but not that Daniele Rugani and Mario Mandzukic exits were imminent.

Coach Maurizio Sarri made the situation clear in a Press conference when complaining it was “embarrassing” that he had to cut six players from the current group for their Champions League squad.

While Matthijs de Ligt, Merih Demiral, Gianluigi Buffon and Danilo have come in, only Joao Cancelo, Leonardo Spinazzola and Moise Kean have left.

Paratici spoke to Sky Sport Italia after the traditional pre-season in-house friendly between the senior and youth teams at Villar Perosa, in which Dybala scored twice.

“As with all transfer sessions, there is a lot of chatter and lately not many actual deals done, but we are calm and confident.

“It’s not that there is an excess of players, but rather a list that neither the Coach nor I can do anything about. We can only use 21, and just one ‘local’ homegrown player. Therefore, the players who are not in that list of 22 have to go.”

The director of sport was asked if defender Rugani or striker Mandzukic were first out the door, with reports of Monaco, Roma and Borussia Dortmund interest.

“There aren’t any players closer to a sale than others. We are one of the best teams in the world, which means we have many top level players.

“It takes three parties to conclude a transfer, so we’ll slowly reach our conclusions.”

Most of the focus has been around Dybala, who is heavily linked with Paris Saint-Germain, but could also join Inter in exchange for Mauro Icardi.

“Dybala is like all the others, a great Juventus player. There is interest and there are discussions, we’ll talk about it together.

“Icardi is an Inter player, so we will only talk about those in our squad. We’ve got Gonzalo Higuain, who is a great hitman, while Mandzukic is an excellent forward. Let’s talk about our players.”

Mattia Perin returned to base after he failed a medical with Benfica, while Marko Pjaca is also still recovering from a series of injuries.

"We have players like Perin and Pjaca who need to fully recover before they can be transferred."

Sarri was brought in to spice up the style of football after Max Allegri, while Antonio Conte is the new boss at Inter.

“I think every Coach has his style. I’ve watched many entertaining matches by Allegri’s Juve and he helped everyone to grow.”

Watch Serie A live in the UK on Premier Sports for just £9.99 per month including live LaLiga, Eredivisie, Scottish Cup Football and more. Visit: https://www.premiersports.com/subscribenow