Reports: Leandro Paredes-Emre Can swap deal emerging as January option

If anything, the Italian media knows where to focus the January transfer rumors when it comes to who Juventus might go and sign next month.

It’s been like this: midfield, midfield, midfield.

According La Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere dello Sport, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain have been talking again. Don’t worry, it’s nothing involving Paulo Dybala or anything like that, folks. It’s more to do with another pair of names that have been linked to each club over the last couple of transfer windows. As both papers state, Juventus and PSG have discussed and quite possibly started negotiating a swap deal — you know how Fabio Paratici is suddenly a big fan of those — involving midfielder Emre Can and Leandro Paredes, two players who are far from receiving consistent playing time this season.

The essential reasoning behind why a swap deal would work is, according to both papers, the market value for both Can and Paredes is essentially equal and no giant sum of money would have to be inserted into the negotiations to try and make things work.

There’s also this bit from La Gazzetta: PSG’s German manager, Thomas Tuchel, is thought to be a fan of his countryman Can, who has been anything but shy about his current state at Juventus ever since a move away from the club didn’t happen over the summer and then he was excluded from the Champions League group stage squad in September.

It’s also reported that Juventus’ manager, Maurizio Sarri, tried to sign Paredes during his time managing Chelsea. That obviously didn’t happen, with Paredes instead signing with Paris Saint-Germain during the January transfer window earlier this calendar year.

Of course, like Mario Mandzukic, Can’s departure from Juventus only seems like a forgone conclusion at this point knowing what has happened over the last couple of months. And with Rodrigo Bentancur emerging as a key figure in Sarri’s midfield — prior to his three-game suspension, of course — the likelihood of Can seeing any kind of uptick in playing during the second half of the season probably isn’t going to happen unless there’s another big injury crisis taking place in the near future.

Knowing who else is currently on Juventus’ roster, signing a midfielder like Paredes makes sense. And seeing as Can clearly wants out as soon as possible, using him as a bargaining chip in negotiations makes sense, too. Now, we’ll see if something actually gets done.