:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/37449240/481286597.0.jpg)
We're at the point of the transfer window where a couple things happen.
- Transfer rumors start to fly in the air like a flock of crazy birds.
- Juventus are on the hunt for a last-minute loan move.
Option No. 1 is true for every club that is still looking to build it's squad into something better. Or, at the very least, add a player or two before the window shuts in around a week.
Option No. 2 is obviously more about Juventus, but applicable to a good number of teams, too. Still, we're about Juventus here, and we will make it about Juventus for as long as we're around.
Xherdan Shaqiri has many suitors, but he seems to be waiting for Juventus. In the past hours, Atletico Madrid insistently courted him, there have been contacts, inquiries and an offer. But the Swiss attacker decided to decline it and wait for the offer from Juventus, a club he likes a lot. Spartak Moscow are after him too, Juventus are lurking. Meanwhile, Bayern Munich opened to a loan move.
(Source: Gianluca Di Marzio)
If Juventus have any chance of landing Shaqiri, then that last sentence might be the biggest development of them all. Juventus director general Beppe Marotta clearly wants to add somebody to the attack, but with the caveat that it's a player who arrives on loan. That's not definite fact that has been verified, but every single sign points to it being true.
Shaqiri is obviously a victim of Bayern's insane amount of attacking talent on this season's roster. And in the same kind of fashion as another rumored Juve target, Lukas Podolski, Shaqiri is the kind of versatile attacking player that Marotta wants to obtain while the transfer window is still open. He could, say, play behind Fernando Llorente and Carlos Tévez in a 4-3-1-2, or out wide on one of the wings in 4-3-3.
So many different Shaqiri-related options right now. Can't control my mind.
And if it's Podolski on loan or Xherdan Shaqiri on loan, I'm pretty sure who I would like Juve to sign in the next week. Sorry, Luka, it's nothing personal.
