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Even with Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu saying last week that Alexis Sánchez wasn't up for sale or even potentially on the transfer market, it was very hard to take those comments completely serious. Count Juventus director general Beppe Marotta as one of those people.
According to reports out of Spain, Marotta and Juventus have made their first bid for the current Barcelona forward. And, according to those same reports, the €18 million bid for the Chilean has been shot down — which isn't much of a surprise when you consider how Bartomeu's comments were looked at as a way to almost certainly drive up the price for Sánchez.
Mundo Deportivo claim that the Serie A champions tabled an €18m bid for the Chile international, but that was quickly rejected by the Blaugrana
It's only been three seasons since the Camp Nou outfit paid Udinese €40m for Sanchez's services.
And Mundo Deportivo insist that were Luis Enrique's men to sell the forward, they would ask for something near that figure.
(Source: Football España)
It's no surprise to see Marotta try and low-ball another team when it comes to a potential transfer. It isn't the first time, and it certainly won't be the last. It's how the man operates on the transfer market no matter who the club is targetting. The key in this negotiation will probably be how far Marotta is willing to go to try and get the 25-year-old Sánchez, who scored 19 goals and had 10 assists in 34 games (27 starts) in La Liga this past season.
If Marotta does something he really has yet to do since coming to Juventus — shell out a price figure over €20 million at one time for a single player on the transfer market — then obtaining Sánchez could very well become a distinct possibility. But with Marotta keeping things relatively cheap when it comes to a what he thinks Sánchez might cost, it's completely understandable that Barça have basically shooed away a low bid.
I mean, if Barcelona want to go against the word of their new president and sell Sanchez, they're going to try and get a really nice chunk of change for him. It's not like Alexis is a player who doesn't have any teams monitoring his situation right now or anything...
Or, instead of freaking out about one bid being rejected, we can watch Alexis Sánchez doing some really awesome things against Real Madrid earlier this past season.
I like gifs. They are cool. So are lovely goals like that. I'd say a goal like that would look pretty good coming in a Juventus jersey. Just a hunch.
