Report: Juventus and Chelsea talking Miralem Pjanic-Jorginho swap deal

If there is one thing about the transfer rumors we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks, it’s that they’re consistent. Maybe not consistent about who they involve because that’s never going to happen except for the rare occasions, but just the way that said deals may be constructed in this post-coronavirus economic crunch of roster building.

You guessed it, friends.

Swap season commence again.

It only seemed inevitable that we would reach the point where a few of Maurizio Sarri’s former players at Napoli or Chelsea — or both — got involved in the rumor mill. And that is what greeted us on Thursday morning, with Fabrizio Romano reporting that Juventus and Chelsea have opened negotiations over a potential swap deal involving Miralem Pjanic and Jorginho, a player that Sarri has coached at both Napoli and during his lone season in charge at Chelsea.

Just a day earlier, Romano’s transfer reporting buddy Gianluca Di Marzio over at Sky Sport Italia reported that Chelsea are one of three teams currently interested in Pjanic. The other two are probably ones you can guess based on the last few cycles of Pjanic rumors — Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain. Di Marzio indicates that Chelsea “could insert Jorginho into the operation” based on his information.

Romano’s report, published at the Guardian, takes things another step further.

Pjanic, who turned 30 years old a few weeks back, has been the name mentioned the most during these coronavirus times when it comes to leaving Juventus during the next transfer window. (And based on when the proposed restart of the Serie A starts, who knows when those transfer dealings would actually happen.)

The rumored negotiations with Barcelona centered around Arthur Melo coming to Juventus as the other main figure in the deal. However, as both Di Marzio and Romano point out, Arthur seems less likely to accept a move to Juve because he prefers to stay at Barcelona (regardless of how much of a mess that club’s front office may be right now.) And we know that PSG is always going to be linked with Pjanic because that’s almost as constant as any transfer rumor that we’ve seen in recent months. There may be other clubs interested in Pjanic, but there’s also Paris Saint-Germain, so watch out now, everybody.

But when it comes to Jorginho, there’s the obvious link with Sarri and the potential to have a proven player in his system and Serie A come back the other way if Pjanic heads to London. As much as we thought Pjanic could play the Jorginho role in Sarri’s system, Jorginho is the man that some of Sarri’s best teams at Napoli were centered around.

And it just so helps that Jorginho’s agent just so happens to mention that his client miiiiiiiiight be interested in a return to Italy after two years in the Premier League. As much as Jorginho is committed to Chelsea, his agent said last month, “the door remains open for Juve.”

Well, we’ll see about that, I guess. Here’s another potential swap deal to discuss as you sit in quarantine.