Reports: After weeks of uncertainty, Arthur Melo says ‘yes’ to Juventus

In what is going to be a transfer window like we’ve never truly seen before, Juventus and Barcelona reportedly had all the boxes checked for their proposed Arthur Melo and Miralem Pjanic swap deal. All of them, except for one.

You know, that whole “Arthur doesn’t want to move to Juventus” thing.

Well, after weeks of playing the very annoying “Will he or won’t he?” game, we look to have an answer. Not an official answer, but the next best thing.

According to multiple reports out of Italy on Thursday, Arthur has finally given the green light to the Spanish side of the swap deal with Juventus and Pjanic. That also means that Arthur has agreed personal terms with Juventus, with the Italian champions set to pay the 23-year-old Brazilian €5 million net a season over the course of the next five years, according to Sky Sport Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio.

The numbers are being reported in line with what we’ve heard over the last 24 hours: €70 million (plus another €5 million in bonuses) for Arthur, €60 million for Pjanic.

An amortization special, everybody! (And while the numbers might be a little different than what we’re hearing coming out of the Italian press, this is a very helpful Twitter thread from the man behind the Swiss Ramble blog.)

This was the one hurdle that, from the start, appeared to be the thing that would derail this deal. Pjanic reportedly agreed to terms with Barcelona relatively quickly. Then we got word that Juventus and Barcelona had agreed to the framework of the deal, although those numbers have changed a little bit over the last few days. All that was left for Arthur to give his stamp of approval on signing with Juventus, something that seemed completely up in their air as to whether it would actually happen up until a couple of days ago.

But, as things have progressed over the last 48 or 72 hours, the possibility of Arthur saying “yes” to Juventus has become more and more possible. Even as he got the start in Barcelona’s 1-0 win over Athletic Club, the reports were that Barca had given the indication that they did truly intend to sell Arthur come the summer transfer window. And seeing as the tune of whether Arthur will green light a move to Juventus has changed drastically over that time, the dots can be connected to something major happening. (Besides Juve offering him a nice contract to sign upon his arrival in Turin.)

And because of it, Juventus truly looks set to make its first major move of the 2020 summer. I know I’ve been saying that for a few days now, but it’s looking like it’s going to actually happen now. This was the major hurdle, and Juve look like they’ve finally been able to clear it.