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When it came to who was — and wasn’t — called up for Juventus’ season-opening match against Parma this past weekend, there were two noticeable absences. One had to do with injury, with Aaron Ramsey still recovering from the injury he picked up in the spring. The other, involving Daniele Rugani, was looked at as something far from anything injury related.
Did it mean that Rugani was soon to complete his rumored move to Roma? That’s what some people who are in the know when it comes to calcio seemed to think.
Well, we’ll just have to continue to wait to see if it actually happens. From Gianluca Di Marzio, who gave us this report on Tuesday night:
Roma are not giving up in their pursuit for Juventus’ Daniele Rugani. Today, the Giallorossi have made an official offer to Juventus for the 25-year-old; it was a proposal to take the Italian defender on loan with a right of redemption. However, the Bianconeri have declined. The possibility of a deal still remains a possibility, however, the main alternative remains Liverpool’s Dejan Lovren.
Obviously, the biggest thing you’ll notice from the report that Di Marzio provides us is what the price of the deal actually would be. We’ve seemingly heard the €30 million figure being thrown out there by other Italian press outlets over the last few weeks, but with no price reported above, there’s no real ability to compare what Juventus has reportedly just rejected.
There’s also no mention of the two Roma youngsters being involved in the deal like we heard about last week.
Another part of Di Marzio’s report is regarding Milan’s interest in another one of Juventus’ young center backs, Merih Demiral, but let’s just focus on Rugani for now. (Because, as our friends at Chiesa Di Totti suggest, the Demiral rumors are more just a smokescreen or negotiating tactic to try and get some kind of Rugani action happening.)
Of the five center backs currently on Juventus’ roster, Rugani seems to be fourth-choice — at best. That means his inconsistent playing time trend is certainly going to continue this season if he were to stay at Juventus. The chance to go to Roma would provide Rugani with an opportunity to re-start a career that has far from reached the expectations placed on him when he first returned to Juventus a few years back.
And while we heard that this deal was seemingly done a few weeks ago, this deal — like a lot of the other ones that involve Juventus trimming some of the fat on its roster — seems like it will be coming down to the deadline. Just what you want to hear when your squad is bursting at the seams, isn’t it?