Axel Witsel confirms he will sign with Juventus, but doesn’t know when

We’ve written quite a bit when it comes to the Axel Witsel Chronicles over the last calendar year. Will he sign for Juventus? Will he not sign for Juventus? When will he sign for Juventus? Why the hell didn’t he sign for Juventus on the final day of the summer transfer window? You know, those kinds of things.

On Monday, we got an official answer. And it was from the man with the A-plus grade afro himself.

Witsel confirmed in an interview that he will be a Juventus player at some point in the future. The one sticking point is that the 27-year-old Belgian doesn’t exactly know when he will be trading in winters in Russia to the wonderfulness of Turin whenever a move does take place. Basically, for a cut-rate fee or on a free transfer, Witsel is going to be a Juventus player at some point over the next few months.

“It’s always nice to hear that a club like Juventus are not giving up on me,” Witsel told RTBF.

“Right now I’m not asking whether it’ll be in January or June, I’m just playing my matches and we’ll see what happens for me.

“But I’ll join Juventus? That will be the case. Right now I don’t know when.”

(Source: Football Italia)

Considering Juventus’ midfield depth is a little less than impressive right now — in talent more so in numbers, that is — adding Witsel to the fold is going quite the positive development. That’s especially true if he joins signs with Juve in January, something that Zenit could want to have happen because they would actually get some kind of financial value for him instead of watching him leave for nothing.

But whenever Witsel does sign with Juventus, it will be the ending point in what has been a process that I don’t think anybody thought would drag on this long. Maybe it’s not a surprise to some that Witsel has come out and said that a Juventus move is going to happen considering how close he reportedly was back in late-August, but it’s not everyday that we have players say where there next team is going to be, let alone do so months in advance of said move.

Either way, Witsel is going to be a Juventus player at some point in the somewhat near future. If it’s in two months, that’s the preferred option. But even in the summer, there’s nothing wrong with a good player arriving for free. Go ahead and start placing your bets on which squad number Witsel is going to wear because there’s going to be at least one introductory press conference taking place.