Report: Dejan Kulusevski is off the market after Federico Chiesa’s injury

While we all wonder just how long it will take for Federico Chiesa to come back to full Federico Chiesa powers after he undergoes major knee surgery, there’s also the thoughts of just how Max Allegri will go about changing his tactical setup and starting lineup. Without arguably his most explosive player available the rest of the season, there’s bound to be some thinking from Allegri of just how to try and not have his team go into a midseason funk.

It also means that players who might have been rumored to leave probably aren’t at this point because the depth in the squad will be even worse off if something did happen on the transfer market.

According to Italian transfer report Nicolo Schira, Juventus has decided to take one of its potential sources of income on the transfer market, young winger Dejan Kulusevski, off of said transfer market. Kuluseveki has been the center of a good amount of rumors involving his future of late, with clubs like Arsenal, Tottenham and a few other clubs in the Premier League having interest in the Swedish winger. But, because of Chiesa being out for the rest of the season, Juventus can’t afford to see another winger suddenly not be available, which has essentially forced the club’s front office to keep ahold of him until the summer at the very minimum.

With how much he has struggled over his season and a half with Juventus, you wouldn’t have blamed the club’s front office that this would be a time to try and recoup some of — if not all — the €35 million transfer fee (plus a potential €9 million in add-ons) they paid Atalanta two years ago. His tenure at Juventus, while a lot of the time played out of position, has been relatively disappointing, with the end result not totally showing the amount of talent the young fella has.

But now, it’s pretty easy to understand why Juventus is keeping Kulusevski around. No matter how much one of those offers could have been tempting, the fact that Juventus can’t afford to see another winger leave now that Chiesa is out for the season is very much a reality. Selling Kulusevski would only mean Juve would then have to likely sign another winger, which would result in the money you just got going right back out.

Maybe it turns out Kulusevski leaves in the summer to one of the clubs that he has been linked to over the last couple of weeks. Maybe this is the opportunity for Kulusevski to get some consistent playing time for the first time this season. Or maybe he will just continue in his current role of being an option off the bench.

Either way, with no Chiesa around, Juve essentially being forced to keep Kulusevski was a decision made out of need more than anything else. Now we wait to see what happens next.