Report: Max Allegri will ask Juventus to re-open contract talks with Paulo Dybala

Even though Max Allegri hasn’t officially been hired yet as Juventus’ next manager, it’s becoming ever so clear that a big sticking point with his return to the club was just how much control he would have over the roster and the overall decision-making process.

We are beginning to figure this out since Allegri has already started to put wheels in motion despite the fact that he hasn’t officially taken the job yet.

Allegri has reportedly convinced 36-year-old captain Giorgio Chiellini to stick around for one more season. And just a few hours before the reports about Chiellini’s future in Turin, we got this doozy of a story: Allegri has asked the Juventus front office that they re-open contract talks with star striker Paulo Dybala, who has been in a stalemate over a new deal for over a year now, according to a report from Goal Italia’s Romeo Agresti.

Juventus and Dybala’s representation have had little contact over a potential new deal in recent months, with the club — namely outgoing Chief Football Officer Fabio Paratici — stating that they are not going to budge on the €10 million offer they put forward and that they feel the No. 10 is worth.

Now, just go with me here for a minute as I try and provide a little bit of context.

Back in the early hours of the month of May, Tuttosport reported that Dybala wanted to stay at Juventus this summer despite the fact that nothing has come close to being solved when it came to the status of his contract renewal. The catch, of course, was that the report came at a time when Allegri return rumors were starting to pop up on a regular basis and Andrea Pirlo’s job was in serious doubt entering the final stretch of the 2020-21 season.

Some reports over the last 48 hours have suggested that Allegri views Dybala as a key figure in his new-look Juventus squad. Whether that holds any weight remains to be seen, but the fact that Allegri reportedly wants Juventus to try and get contract talks with Dybala back on track is a sign that he wants the No. 10 to stick around for more than just one more season before his current deal expires.

And if that’s the case, it’s certainly going to be quite the turn when it looked like Dybala could be one of the players sacrificed due to Juve’s current economic state. (Of course, that could very well take place in no contract extension actually happens.) The 2020-21 season was not one to remember for Dybala, with injuries and poor form hampering him for much of the year. Maybe Allegri’s return will be the thing that gets Dybala going again, and obviously a development like this when it comes to his contract talks is quite the show of faith for a player who is very much the dynamic force when things are firing on all cylinders.