Four hours after Arsenal trudged off at the end of a scoreless draw with Burnley yesterday afternoon, Juventus were producing a performance somehow even less threatening against Milan as their Serie A hopes were left hanging by a thread.
With a frontline of Alvaro Morata and Paulo Dybala, they failed to record a single attempt on target at San Siro and it went a long way to explaining why the Old Lady, like the north London club, are so interested in signing the striker Dusan Vlahovic from Fiorentina before the transfer window closes next week.
The latest reports from Italy indicate that Vlahovic is more likely to head to Turin, with Juve offering the Sweden international Dejan Kulusevski in addition to €30million (£25million).
And yet it is hard not to think about the finances of a deal when so much has been made of Juve’s problems and their need to instigate cost-cutting measures.
Their most recent accounts, posted last September, pointed to total debt of £332million, with an eye-watering amount saved from allowing Cristiano Ronaldo to depart to Manchester United.
Ronaldo, who cost €100million from Real Madrid in 2018, was on around £46million before tax according to Italian media, explaining their willingness to get him off the books.
For context their current highest earner, defender Matthijs de Ligt, makes about £14.5million before deductions per year.
But that one departure did not mean their cloth had not been accordingly and, as outlined by Gazzetta, the Portuguese was also not the problem with a piece before Christmas explaining how they squandered more than half a billion euro on signings that have not worked out.
Since then the club has seen its training ground raided as part of an investigation into 42 of their transfer dealings, with accusations of creative accounting and inflated fees mostly relating to underage and fringe players.
So if Vlahovic is to land at Juve in the next seven days, instead of Arsenal, then other parts of the club will need to have its fat trimmed.
Aaron Ramsey is among those being linked with a move away, Arthur Melo could swap Juve for the Emirates on loan, but any Arsenal fan frustrated by their club’s financial position can do worse than look to Italy and surmise that even if this battle ends up being lost they are in a much healthier long-term position off the field.
