Report: Fabio Paratici has his sights set on signing Gaetano Castrovilli

Even as Fiorentina struggled through the first few months of the 2019-20 Serie A season, Gaetano Castrovilli was one of the club’s bright spots. So much so that the 23-year-old midfielder went from being appreciated by Viola fans to suddenly the eye of just about every big club in Italy. All of this within a few short months despite the fact that his team as a whole was playing so poorly that Fiorentina was hovering around the relegation zone.

Of course, when we say the big clubs in Italy, that inevitably means Juventus is involved.

And, lo and behold, that’s pretty much what putting 2 and 2 together will equate to.

According to a report from Tuttosport early Thursday, as Juventus’ list of potential midfield targets grows by the week, Chief Football Officer Fabio Paratici has identified Castrovilli as a “clear objective” when the next transfer market is open for business. As much as the likes of Sandro Tonali and Paul Pogba are crystal clear targets at this point, according to Tuttosport, it’s Castrovilli is emerging more and more as a player that Paratici is going to take a serious run at to help improve Juve’s situation in the midfield.

You can of course say Tuttosport will Tuttosport and linking Juventus with one of the best young Italian players in Serie A is relatively easy. They’ve done it before, and they will do it again — probably within the next week or two if history proves anything to be right.

But if you consider Pogba to be one of the highest-priced targets Juventus may have this summer, then where does Castrovilli fall into the equation? We already know that Fiorentina head man Rocco Commisso is not easy man to negotiate with based on how Juve’s interest in Federico Chiesa went last summer. (In short: not great!)

Castrovilli won’t come cheap, obviously. Neither will Pogba. Neither will Tonali. But if there ever is a summer to invest in the midfield and try to seriously take it up a level or two in terms of quality, then it needs to happen a few months than now. Then again, we said that last summer. And probably the summer before that one, too.