Juventus’ deal for Atalanta defender Mattia Caldara ‘will be made official in January’

It’s that time of year where we pay attention to Beppe Marotta’s words about the construction of the Juventus roster a little more than we usually do. Not to say we disregard them about 8 ¹⁄₂ months out of the year, but whenever there’s a transfer window either open or approaching, whatever Marotta says is a just that much more important to what we’re talking about here.

This latest Marotta interview update involves the good (Mattia Caldara) and the not-so-good (Zenit St. Petersburg being jabronis regarding Axel Witsel) of Juventus’ current transfer standing entering the month of January. For the sake of our sanity, we will focus on Marotta’s most recent words about Caldara, Atalanta’s 22-year-old defensive starlet who has been the subject of a lot of Juventus-centered transfer rumors over the last week or two.

“We’re at a good point, we’ll make it official in January but the transfer is for 2018.”

(Source: Football Italia)

Those are only 17 words from Marotta’s interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport from Thursday morning’s edition of the pink paper that is probably also filled with a bunch of rumors that may or may not have truth to go along with it. But what Marotta’s words indicate is what we are starting to see Juventus’ January transfer window take shape — and it involves one of Italy’s biggest breakout youngsters this season.

There, of course, is something with the deal that we don’t usually see much of when there’s a reported price between €15 million and €20 million involved. That has to do with the fact, as Marotta said, that Caldara won’t actually play for Juventus until 2018. This means two main things:

1. Caldara gets the playing time he so desperately needs at his age as he prepares for the step up.
2. Juventus’ defense is going to look a little different come the start of the 2018-19 season.

By the time Caldara comes to Juventus in 2018, he will be 24 years old and hopefully continuing the growth that he’s shown at Atalanta this season. While for obviously more money and a completely different amount of time, this deal is along the same lines as when Juventus bought Stefano Sturaro and Daniele Rugani and left them right where they were immediately after the deal. Especially in the case of Rugani, that has seemed to work out pretty well.