Report: Juventus close to agreeing to personal terms with Luis Suarez

While many of us hope that the potential prodigal son returns to the club he grew up at, Juventus appear to be trying to resolve their search for a new No. 9 in relatively quick order.

There are major hurdles to get over still — some of which have nothing to do with Juve themselves — but the wheels appear to be very much in motion.

According to both Sky Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio and Romeo Agresti of Goal Italia, Juventus’ negotiations with Luis Suarez have very much progressed over the last 24 hours. Di Marzio has gone so far to say that Juventus and Suarez have essentially agreed to personal terms on a contract. (Although terms of the agreement and just how long that contract might be were not available in either Di Marzio or Agresti’s reporting.) And while Juve may still hold out hope that something for Edin Dezko develops — remember, he is reportedly the first choice of first-year manager Andrea Pirlo — it appears as though Suarez might be the more obtainable player as of this moment.

That is, if he can find a way to be released from his current contract with Barcelona and become a free agent. Minor details, I know.

Suarez, who will turn 34 years old in late January, is one of the handful of players who have been rumored to be on the outs at Barcelona as the club undergoes an expected radical transformation over the next few weeks and transfer windows. He has been expected to leave the club’s new manager, Ronald Koeman told the Uruguayan that he was not part of Barcelona’s plans going forward.

Suarez scored 16 goals and recorded eight assists in 28 games (22 starts) in La Liga play last season. He also had five goals in the Champions League, which obviously didn’t end so well for Barcelona.

Is Suarez an upgrade over somebody like Gonzalo Higuain? Yeah, probably.

He likely will demand just as much of a salary, if not slightly more, than Higuain currently makes. And Suarez just so happens to be older, so it’s not like Juve’s getting any younger or majorly reducing costs in that aspect of this potential new No. 9 acquisition. (Not that it would be much different if Dzeko were to join Juventus, so there goes that thinking.)

But the fact still remains that Juve’s two main No. 9 targets right now are in their mid-30s and aren’t going to come cheap in terms of their annual salary. For a club that hasn’t exactly got a lot of money to spend this summer, that isn’t exactly the best kind of news.