Report: Juventus want Alvaro Morata back, but for less than the €35M fee

Ever since Alvaro Morata first stepped back into the Turin airport in September of 2020, this kind of situation was going to arrive. As much as Juventus liked him, brought him back for a second go-round and have clearly shown plenty of faith in him, the conditions in which he made the move from Atletico Madrid to Juventus seemed a little ... high.

Juventus didn’t take up their first option to make Morata’s deal permanent last summer. What about this summer, though?

Well, as you might expect, it’s not going to happen unless Atleti are willing to do some negotiating and agree to come down from the €35 million buy option that was originally worked into the loan deal.

According to Goal Italia’s Romeo Agresti, Juventus will soon try to bring down that €35 million fee to try and keep Morata around on a permanent basis. Morata is one of the many attacking players whose future is very much up in the air, with Paulo Dybala already certain to leave on a free transfer this summer and Juan Cuadrado still without a contract extension signed no matter how expected it may be. Juve and Atleti have yet to begin talks regarding a lower fee, per Agresti, but are planning to do so in the next few weeks.

Let’s be honest: As much as Morata — who was heavily linked with a move to Barcelona during the January transfer window — can be an important player, paying €35 million for him this summer was never going to happen. Juventus, as we know, is going to have quite the busy summer trying to find somebody to replace Dybala, trying to upgrade the midfield (again) and potentially getting its aging defense a little younger, so going out and spending that much on Morata after already spending €20 million on loan fees would just not be good business.

But if Juventus can, say, knock a good chunk of that €35 million buy option to secure Morata’s permanent move to Turin, then it’s simply a better value as compared to paying full pop. As much as Juventus will need somebody to replace Dybala’s creativity and goals no matter what the formation next season may be, Morata has proven to be a versatile option no matter what his role may be if his deal is made to be a permanent one.

It’s just pretty safe to saying that Juve isn’t going to pay that €35 million fee to make it permanent. With so much else to do this summer, allocating so much money to Morata would just be a mistake from Juve’s front office.