Report: Domenico Berardi is ready to stay at Sassuolo for another season

For weeks now we've been under the basic assumption that Juventus will use its buy-back option on Sassuolo starlet Domenico Berardi. That's the short and simple summation of all of it. We don't know much of the workings of how it has come to be, but the last we heard on the matter basically involved Beppe Marotta telling us that Juve will sign Berardi and that will be that.

Apparently, nearly three weeks after we last heard from Marotta regarding Berardi's potential Juventus future, Sky Sport Italia's Gianluca Di Marzio has heard otherwise. From a report he published on Tuesday:

Domenico Berardi seems set to remain at least another year at Sassuolo. Both Juventus and Sassuolo have met a few times to discuss Berardi's future and it now seems that both clubs have agreed to let him stay one more year at Sassuolo. It will be hard for another team , like Inter to step in and try to sign him since everything is done between Juve and Sassuolo. The definitive yes should come soon, as Berardi seems set on staying another year with Sassuolo.

Oh.

I mean...oh.

When I first read the above piece of reportage I had flashbacks to last summer when we thought Juventus would purchase the second half of Berardi's contract since co-ownership in Italy was going away. As we all know, it turned out to be Sassuolo that bought Berardi's contract in full, with the two clubs pretty much working out a deal a lot like the one they did the summer before with Simone Zaza — who obviously signed with Juventus 12 months later.

Combine the known fact that Juve have a buyback clause this summer and it's a simple line of thinking that one of Italy's brightest talent would be playing with the country's No. 1 club.

If this is true, it's going to be a tough one to deal simply because Berardi seemed like an absolute lock to join Juventus summer. How many times over the last couple of days have we heard "Pjanic, Alves, Berardi. This summer window is a damn beautiful thing with those three!" or something to that extent? It's certainly more than a few times.

This ain't over yet. But, man, this is a little more than an unexpected turn if it turns out to be true.