Schalke sporting director says Juventus has yet to submit a Julian Draxler bid

Maybe we should just call this the latest chapter in the new transfer series 'How the Julian Draxler Turns.' Or maybe we should be happy that Juventus is playing a friendly tomorrow afternoon so that we don't have to consume or minds with nothing but transfer chatter and gossip for all hours of each day that comes our way.

We've heard about how Juventus and Schalke are rumored to be €10 million apart — Juventus standing at €20 million, Schalke holding firm at €30 million — in what they feel is the evaluation for Draxler is. We've heard about Draxler's supposed salary demands and the fact that his agent thinks a deal could be done for a €25 million price tag. Basically, everything seemed to be going well and there was some progress being made as far as we knew, right? Right!

But we also have this piece of information from Schalke sporting director Horst Heldt that may hint at everything being thrown out there in the Italian media

"If Juventus want him, then things can move forward. We haven't received an offer, and if we did then we're in a position to reject it. In any case, we'll worry about that when we get an offer. We want to play fair, Juve asked us if they could speak with Julian, and we said yes with confidence."

(Source: Football Italia)

Well that just kills the mojo, doesn't it?

I'll plead my ignorance in regard to Horst Heldt and his comments in the public before simply because this is the first time Juventus has negotiated such a high-profile deal with Schalke in the Beppe Marotta/Andrea Agnelli era. We know what Marotta is all about when he speaks publicly at a press conference or in an interview in one of Italy's sports newspapers. But, in a way, it's a little different for Heldt considering we don't know if he's a man of his word of just completely full of you-know-what.

So, I guess we'll just have to take Mr. Heldt at his word despite the fact reports of Juventus and Schalke continuing Draxler talks came out late Thursday. Oh well. I sure hope this doesn't turn into some kind of drawn-out process, but it's really hard to tell at this point.