Beppe Marotta confirms Juventus are close to officially signing Sami Khedira

When Beppe Marotta talks about a transfer being close to something final, you listen. That's mainly because he doesn't come out and actually say much about what's going on in Juventus' transfer market all too often. He used to, but not even close to as much as before.

So when he says that Juventus are basically a contract signing away from having Sami Khedira move to Juventus this summer for a transfer fee of absolutely nothing, then you listen, too.

"We are very close to Khedira and will announce it officially when pen is put to paper. We moved swiftly and tenaciously because he has everything we were looking for. It is a winning group and we took the opportunity to further raise the quality level."

(Source: Football Italia)

That sounds about as done of a deal as done deals get to me. Not a bad price, too.

But that's what we've come to expect from Marotta these days. If it's a good player on a free transfer, you have to think he'd be interested based solely on his past acquisitions. You know, the low-price, high-reward signings that have happened nearly every summer since Marotta took over the sculpting of the Juventus roster.

And it looks as though Khedira is the latest and potentially greatest one.

Where he will fit into the crowded and incredibly skilled Juventus midfield still remains to be seen, but Marotta and the rest of the Juve front office clearly found the reported private medical exams that took place earlier this week to be approval-worthy. And if that was the only thing preventing Juventus from going forward with bringing in Khedira on a free, well then it shouldn't be much of a surprise that Marotta went ahead and said what he did before Juventus' 2-2 draw against Hellas Verona in the Serie A finale.

So I guess we're now going to be awaiting the official announcement of both Paulo Dybala and Khedira in the near future. Hey, not a bad way to start the transfer window even before it opens if you ask me.