Reports: Juventus might not keep Alvaro Morata past this season

With the way Alvaro Morata was playing through the first couple of months of the 2020-21 season, keeping him beyond the current campaign seemed like a mortal lock. He was scoring goals, he was setting up goals, he was making Fabio Paratici look like a very smart man for acquiring the Spaniard on loan and bringing Morata back to a club where he was clearly happy to be playing at once again.

Fast forward to the beginning of April now and Morata’s future at Juventus suddenly seems anything but certain. And it might not be because of any on-field production concerns.

According to reports out of Spain (Diario AS) and Italy (Tuttosport), Juventus are considering not picking up the €10 million option to keep Morata on loan for another season. The reasoning behind it? Well, it’s more financial than it is sporting, with Juventus’ current grim financial outlook playing a key role in paying for Morata’s loan fee as well as salary — which is reportedly around €5 million a season — beyond the 2020-21 season.

Here’s is the meat of the situation, according to AS, which makes you believe that Morata’s future at the club has essentially been decided already and he is going to be heading back to Spain unless something major changes for the soon-to-be former Italian champions:

Juventus have ruled out exercising their option to buy Morata at the end of the season, for 45 million euros. The club has already spent 10 million euros to pay for his loan this season, and are weighing up whether to extend the loan to 2022, but that would cost another 10 million, and right at this moment, that is just not possible.

As things stand, it is looking more likely that Álvaro Morata will return to Atlético Madrid in July. Juve are delighted with his commitment and performance but the economic crisis has hit them hard and even if they do find an outlet for Cristiano, they might be forced to make more cuts.

So you’re telling me that Juventus can’t even afford keeping Morata on loan for €10 million for another season? Well, good lord then, because that must mean that the next financial report we’re going to hear about is going to be even worse than the last one we got a few weeks ago.

Not good. Not good at all.

And all the worse is that when you consider that even in a depressed market as a result of the pandemic it’s going to be quite hard to try and find somebody that can provide 16 goals and 11 assists in 35 games in all competitions like Morata has this season for less than €20 million in salary and potential transfer fees? I find it highly unlikely.

But if it simply comes down to finances like AS and Tuttosport have made it seem, then there’s serious problems beyond just not retaining Morata for a second season. This would just be another sign of it, and Juventus would be letting go of a good player because of it.