Report: Two Premier League clubs are interested in Adrien Rabiot

An offseason involving plenty of movement and fluidity is essentially upon us, with Juventus reportedly meeting with lawyers and agents alike to try and secure two of the bigger names on the free-agent market. That means, of course, the usual line in Juventus transfer activity will come to once again — for somebody to leave, there must first be a replacement secured.

So, who’s leaving?

The midfield is bound to be one of the more fluid position groups on Juventus’ roster. And according to Italian transfer reporter Nicolo Schira, two Premier League clubs have emerge as potential destinations for Adrien Rabiot, who is set to enter the final year of his nicely-paid contract he signed back in the summer of 2019. Schira does not say who those two English clubs may be, but there have been rumors circulating in England that Chelsea could be considering a bid for the 27-year-old Rabiot, who would be reunited with Thomas Tuchel, his coach at Paris Saint-Germain during his final season in France.

Rabiot has been quite the interesting case since he arrived at Juventus three years ago. Knowing that he was coming off a spell at PSG in which he didn’t play the second half of the season, things were always going to be slow played. Then lockdown in Italy happened, but he came back from the three-month break in arguably his best form in years.

That form, unfortunately, was never truly replicated.

In his Juventus career, Rabiot has been more about unfulfilled potential more than actual productivity. Sure, he’s been a reliable person in terms of health, but this the same Adrien Rabiot who is one of the highest-paid players at the club but just finished a 2021-22 season in which he didn’t score a goal and provided all of ... two assists in 32 Serie A appearances (28 starts). That’s not what you expect from that kind of player at that kind of salary.

Yet Rabiot has, for the most part, been that kind of player. He does some good, he does some not very good and is sometimes just ... there. Maybe more than just “sometimes.”

Juventus would have the chance to turn a profit on the books if they were to sell Rabiot, a player who arrived on a free-agent deal in the summer of 2019. He is one of the handful of midfielders not named Manuel Locatelli and Denis Zakaria who have been linked with a move away from Juventus this summer. We thought that last summer could be the time in which a Premier League club comes for Rabiot, but now may be the time — and that would be a good time for it.