Arkadiusz Milik: How Juventus could still sign the striker this summer

Following the conclusion of the first knock-out stage of this season’s Champions League, it came to our notice that none of the four teams from Italian Serie A made the quarterfinals of the competition — for the first time in the last five years.

It is a hard time for the league and the teams representing the league altogether. And in order to make things worse, there are other thousand miserable causes. One of them, of course, includes the COVID-19 pandemic.

The empty stadiums mean there is no way of making profits from the sales of the matchday tickets and the club merchandise from offline shops. Less earning means there will be another summer transfer window just like the last one — only a few were able to spend according to their liking.

Hit hard by the financial crisis inflicted by the pandemic, Juventus, on the other hand, leaned more towards occupying players’ services on loan last summer.

They went on to bring in Alvaro Morata from Atletico Madrid, Federico Chiesa from Fiorentina, and Weston McKennie from Schalke, following the norms of season-long long deals.

However, despite making these efforts to minimize the effect of the pandemic on their squad or gameplay, Juventus failed to cover all their grounds.

The disappointing Arkadiusz Milik chase is an apparent manifestation…

Having sacked Maurizio Sarri and hired Andrea Pirlo for the managerial role subsequently, Juventus felt the need to sign an out-and-out no. 9 last summer.

They chose to pursue the then-Napoli striker Arkadiusz Milik, who had just entered the last year of his contract at Naples.

Sensing the imminent interest from Italian rivals, Napoli president and owner, Aurelio De Laurentiis, placed a price-tag of around €45 million despite knowing that the striker would be free to leave his club by the end of the 2020-21 campaign.

As mentioned earlier, financially-impotent Juve management had no choice but to walk away from the negotiations that ended in nothing. Laurentiis stuck to his demand, as Milik stayed put having found no suitor to pay Napoli’s asking price.

In the last January transfer window, Milik eventually left Serie A, joining Ligue 1 side Olympique de Marseille on an 18-month loan deal with an obligation to buy for a reported transfer fee of €8 million that could stretch to  €12 million, thanks to various performance-related add-ons.

Are Juventus still interested in Milik?

Since the main topic hovering around Turin is the unsettled futures of Cristiano Ronaldo and Paulo Dybala, it is very hard to know whether Juventus still have that special place in their heart for the Polish international.

But, here is a fresh report from Tuttosport which explains that Milik is surely not expecting a long-term future in France. In a recent interview with the French outlet L’Equipe (via Tuttosport), he revealed,

"“…I have dreams and I want to play in the best clubs in the world. It’s my goal.”"

How could Juventus sign him amidst the financial conundrum?

While joining Les Phocéens, Milik put pen to a contract that is bound to keep him at the French side until June 2021. Furthermore, what might seem unusual to some — Milik, as per the aforementioned source, has a release clause of €12 million.

And the best thing in the clause is that it doesn’t have any condition preventing his Serie A return.

It is understood that Milik would influence a suitor to trigger his active buy-out clause in the upcoming summer should Marseille fail to qualify for the Champions League next term.

As far as the Ligue 1 table is concerned, it would be miraculous if Marseille are successful in qualifying.

Standing currently 5th in the league table,  Marseille are 15 points behind the 3rd-placed Lyon (only the three top teams are allowed to play the consequent Champions League campaign from France).

Do Juventus need a striker, let alone Arkadiusz Milik?

When running an eye through the full senior roster of Juventus, one might get startled by the fact that Juve has only two out-and-out strikers, one of which is apparently a centre-forward or a conventional no. 09 — Alvaro Morata.

Despite the fact that Andrea Pirlo usually plays two at the front and has the option to include Dejan Kulusevski or Paulo Dybala in the two-man attack, having two main strikers in the squad is certainly not a good sign holding the ambitions of a club such as Juventus.

Currently on loan from Atleti, Morata, as AS believes, could cost Juve up to €45 million in the exchange for the Spaniard’s permanent move to Turin. Spending that much sum on one player looks somewhat unreasonable amidst this uncertain time.

Nonetheless, it is obvious the Bianconeri should sign a striker, regardless of whether they would consider making Alvaro Morata’s stay permanent or not.

Following his arrival to Marseille, Arkadiusz Milik has pocketed 4 goals having played 516 minutes so far this season. He will have his chances to impress his suitors again and attract a few more eyes in the upcoming Euro 2021.

For Juventus, however, it seems to be a match made in heaven. And also, it is worth keeping in mind that it was Andrea Pirlo who listed Milik amongst his potential transfer targets in the first place last summer.