Report: Arthur Melo’s willingness to leave Barcelona is shifting

We have always been under the assumption that Arthur Melo doesn’t want to leave Barcelona because he feels like it’s the best place for him. Even as rumors of a possible transfer away from Barcelona and over to Juventus persist, the potential hiccup in the deal has always been perceived to be from the Brazilians end of things.

That could be changing.

Emphasis on “could.”

According to Tuttosport over the weekend and again on Monday, Arthur’s reluctance on moving away from Barcelona could very well be shifting in a way that benefits Juventus. By that we mean his openness to signing with Juventus and being a major part of the much-rumored swap deal that would see Miralem Pjanic head to Spain. It is stated in Tuttosport’s report from over the weekend that Arthur is becoming more and more open to moving to Juventus as time goes by, with super agent Jorge Mendes reportedly acting as an intermediary between the player and the two clubs.

Tuttosport’s report from over the weekend suggests that Arthur could also be training with Barcelona’s youth team, but seeing as the picture at the top of this article is from small group training on Saturday, who really knows the validity of all that.

Remember, Tuttosport will Tuttosport more often than not.

Either way, any potential progress when it comes to Arthur’s willingness to potentially sign with Juventus will be clearly perceived as this deal going in the right direction. So much of the talk surrounding the rumored Arthur-Pjanic swap deal — and the various exchanges that have come out of it — have centered around the fact that the 23-year-old Brazilian doesn’t want to leave. There is an understanding, at least from what has been reported over the course of the last few weeks, that Pjanic is very much thinking that his future is at Barcelona rather than in Turin. The problem is that Arthur doesn’t feel close to the same about Juventus. (Or more about feels rather strongly about staying at Barca.)

But if there is some progress being made in terms of convincing Arthur that his future is somewhere other than at Barcelona — things are rather crowded in that midfield of theirs at the Camp Nou — then this deal could very well happen.

It’s just a matter of convincing him that leaving Barcelona wouldn’t be such a bad thing, I guess. That doesn’t exactly seem like an easy thing to do, but maybe not all that impossible, either.