Juventus director general Beppe Marotta has defended the club’s transfer policy in a meeting with the club’s shareholders today.
“It’s true, errors have been made,” Marotta said.“Jorge Martinez [signed for €12m from Catania], above all, but you only make mistakes when you actually buy.
“Over the last two years we have had to oversee, not a revolution, but a significant rejuvenation. We’ve signed 22 players and you can get a few signings wrong.
“But don’t forget about the ones we got right, like Andrea Pirlo on a free, Paul Pogba and Arturo Vidal – a player we signed for €10m and one for whom we rejected an offer of €30m.
“We turned that down because Juventus are not a selling club.”
Marotta also insisted that Juve made the right decision in agreeing to sell Ciro Immobile to Genoa in a co-ownership.
“In order to get the best out of youngsters, you have to give other clubs an incentive to do that,” he continued. “Simple loan moves often don’t work in the same way.
“Look at Sebastian Giovinco. We sold a half share in him for €4m to Parma and we signed him back for €11m – now he is a €15m player.”
Marotta also spoke about Juventus’ apparent attempt to hijack Fiorentina’s deal for Dimitar Berbatov this past summer.
“We contacted the player and he told us that he would never join Fiorentina,” Marotta claimed. “He said he just had to decide between us and Fulham, who were bossed by his former Coach Martin Jol.
“Fiorentina keep attacking us, but the truth is that we helped them to not look foolish.”
I understand Marotta’s position but the bottom line is that all Juventus fans heard heading into, and during, the summer transfer market was that the club was going to sign a world class striker in order to compete in the Champions League.
That never happened. Juve ended up with Nicklas Bendtner, on loan from Arsenal, and are in danger of not making it out of the group stage in the Champions League. That is why Juventus fans are upset. Marotta failed to deliver the world class striker that he said he would.
