The Old Lady Speaks Podcast, Episode 92: Paulo Dybala’s last stand at Juventus

As I was uploading last week’s podcast episode, the big news of the week dropped: Paulo Dybala, Juventus’ No. 10, was not going to be renewing his contract after months and months of negotiations. It meant, of course, that the big news was not going to be on Episode 91 of your favorite Juventus podcast, but we were obviously going to talk about it seven days later.

Well, here we are seven days later.

Episode 92 of your favorite Juventus podcast is here and, yes, we are talking all about the situation at Juventus that involves Dybala not renewing his contract and preparing to play his final games in bianconero. It is a situation in which you can see why both sides have a reason to think they’re in the right, and it’s the kind of development that became more and more of a possibility because of just how drawn out this thing became.

There’s been a lot said about Dybala leaving Juventus at the end of the season and there is bound to be more about Dybala leaving Juventus before he does, in fact, play his final game and then leaves. (Hopefully not to Inter even though Inter makes a lot of sense.) This is what we had to say.

On this week’s episode of The Old Lady Speaks, we discuss:

• Takeaways from the week that was, non-Italy getting from World Cup qualification zone — including how being loyal to a single club like Paulo Dybala has been the last seven years doesn’t mean what it used to, and just how difficult it is for folks who aren’t actually in-the-know or in the meetings to truly know what’s going on in contract negotiations.
• Thoughts on Paulo Dybala leaving Juventus at the end of the season, how we got to this point and what might have happened if Dusan Vlahovic wasn’t brought in during the January transfer window.
• Maurizio Arrivabene’s recent quotes have been very ... honest. And maybe a little detrimental.to how Juventus is viewed by potential signings going forward.
• In the days following Dybala’s contract renewal — or lack of one — news, Juventus has been linked to a host of players, most of which have been Italian. Is this a good thing? And how it reflects Juve’s future that involves building around Dusan Vlahovic.
• Twitter questions! Including ones about: Juventus’ tactics in the future once Dybala is no longer on the roster, if Chucky Lozano might work at Juventus, if some youngsters might actually stay at Juventus and contribute next season, why said youngsters have maybe stayed at Juventus and if the Wings of Fede could have saved Italy’s World Cup hopes.

You can listen to Episode 92 of The Old Lady Speaks here:

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