Reports: Juventus tried to recall Andrea Cambiaso from his loan at Bologna early

Quiet January transfer windows aren’t a newfound thing at Juventus. It’s basically the norm, which is why Januarys like we saw last year when Juve splashed the cash to sign Dusan Vlahovic was a bigger deal than it was simply because of who they signed.

But this season’s silent January had more to do with everything going on off the field rather than trying to improve the product on the field. These things are connected, and Juve’s ongoing legal mess played a direct role in what they could — or, in this case, couldn’t — do on the transfer market.

They did try to do something, though.

Deadline Day involved at least one attempt to bring a player in to add to Max Allegri’s suddenly mid-table squad. It’s one that we’re already somewhat familiar with, as multiple reports out of Italy state that Juventus tried to recall on-loan left back Andrea Cambiaso from Bologna. The problem, however, was that Bologna was firm in their stance that they didn’t want to give up Cambiaso after all of four months of his season-long loan despite the fact that they had signed Georgios Kyriakopoulos on loan from Sassuolo earlier in the day.

Trying to bring back Cambiaso — who signed for Juventus from Genoa in an €8.5 million deal this past summer — is a pretty good example of just how limited the front office was during the winter transfer window when it came to trying to upgrade Allegri’s squad. All of the senior squad moves that ended up happening were players leaving on loan deals with options to buy at their new clubs, with very few players even linked with a move to Juventus during the month of January.

Cambiaso did not train with Bologna on Tuesday, according to Sky Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio, which was likely due to the fact that a deal had the potential of being reached.

Playing time has not exactly been plentiful for Cambiaso of late in league play, with the young Italian starting just one game out of Bologna’s last five. In total, Cambiaso has started 12 games this season, playing just over 1,000 minutes — although the vast majority of that came before the World Cup break arrived.