Reports: Juventus, Tottenham agree to Rodrigo Bentancur deal

If anything, I guess we can say that Juventus’ former Chief Football Officer is still on relatively good terms with the guy who took over his job.

First Dejan Kulusevski, now Rodrigo Bentancur. Fabio Paratici has been shopping in his old stomping grounds and clearly Juventus has been happy to listen.

Just hours after Juventus and Tottenham reportedly agreed to the loan deal that will see Kulusevski head to London, the same can now be said about Bentancur. According to all the big guns in the Italian press, Juve and Tottenham have agreed to a €19 million deal for the 24-year-old Bentancur. There could be another €6 million in add-ons included in the deal for Bentancur, who is currently on international duty with Uruguay.

With the Zakaria deal essentially being completed as well, the domino effect is now complete. As has been the case from the get-go, Juventus only would have let a midfielder go if they were able to bring another one in. And since Zakaria is reportedly on his way to Turin, Bentancur is now free to join up with his old friend Fabio and sign with Spurs.

It completes a rumor cycle in which half of Juve’s current crop of midfielders were rumored to be on their way out at any given point. But with Aaron Ramsey rejecting every single offer to leave that came his way and Arthur’s move to Arsenal falling apart over the last couple of days, it suddenly became clear that Bentancur would be the guy who was on his way out this month.

It ironically comes after Bentancur played some of his best ball the last couple of weeks before the international break, but maybe that’s part of what finally allowed him to not play so erratically like he has for a good portion of the last 18 months since somebody other than Maurizio Sarri was his manager.

But even with the sell-on clause that Boca Juniors has, Juventus clearly felt this was the time to part ways with Bentancur and try to cash in on him with Zakaria on the way. It ends what was first a promising run before some bad form over an extended period of time, but Bentancur is young enough — and going to a manager that knows a thing or two about being a good midfielder — to find that promising form again. It just won’t be potentially happening at Juventus.