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The transfer window is officially open. And now things are starting to get really, really interesting.
As they look to fend off competition from rival AC Milan, Juventus director general Beppe Marotta met with Gustavo Mascardi — who has owned Iturbe's rights in the past — and the player's agent to try and reach an agreement to bring the young winger to Turin this summer. And, according to reports coming out of Italy late Tuesday, there has been a major step in the right direction in the process to get Iturbe in bianconero.
Gianluca Di Marzio has the following information regarding what went down on Tuesday:
Juventus are speeding up the negotiation and could anticipate the competition. They met Mascardi today, who is close to the player and owned the 3% of his rights when he was at Porto, and he gave them his okay. Juventus have agreed to terms with the agents and with Iturbe. He would sign a 5-year contract with €2M annual wages. However, they haven't reach an agreement with Hellas Verona yet.
Iturbe, who was bought outright by Verona for €15 million earlier this summer, has been gaining momentum in the Juventus camp over the past couple of weeks. The major detail, of course, is Juventus negotiating the transfer fee for Iturbe with the Verona management.
Interesting you mention that...
#Juve vicinissima a #Iturbe. Offre 23 mln al #Verona: si può chiudere a 25. Intesa con l'argentino. Oggi nuovo vertice #gds
— Carlo Laudisa (@carlolaudisa) July 1, 2014
In the past few weeks, it been widely known that Verona were holding firm on their €30 million valuation of Iturbe. And while the price of another reported Juventus transfer target, Alexis Sánchez, seemingly goes higher and higher into the sky because of his performance at the World Cup, the fee for Iturbe at least seems the slightest bit negotiable right now.
That's how it looks from the outside, at least. We'll see how things develop over the next few days — which could be the determining factor in Iturbe coming to Juve or going elsewhere.
Even with Milan breathing down Juve's neck to try and secure Iturbe's services, it seems as though, right now, the wind is clearly in the Bianconeri's sails when it comes to signing the talented 21-year-old Argentinian.
