The summer is not over — but Juventus’s available financial resources are. The signings of Ekhator, Çelik, Kolo Muani, Alajbegovic, Lucumí, and Vicario have exhausted the club’s direct spending capacity for this window. Whatever comes next must be self-funded: sell first, then buy. That is not a complaint or a crisis — it is simply the reality that governs the final ten days of a market that Carnevali and Massara have navigated with considerable skill and occasional improvisation.
Three positions remain open: a midfielder, a second striker, and a left-back. Each is conditional on a corresponding departure.
Kessié: Waiting on Koopmeiners
Franck Kessié continues to place every other approach on standby — holding firm in his belief that the Juventus move will happen. His personal terms are agreed. His desire to reunite with Massara, with whom he won the 2021-22 Scudetto at AC Milan, is genuine and unwavering. The outstanding obstacle is Teun Koopmeiners — a player who has been overtaken even by the previously written-off Douglas Luiz in Spalletti’s midfield hierarchy, and who must find a new club before Kessié’s place on the list can be created. Roma remain the most plausible destination for a loan arrangement; the alternative is Leon Goretzka, whose free-agent status would at least avoid the Koopmeiners dependency. Arthur, meanwhile, is finalising the consensual termination of his contract.
Zirkzee: Waiting on David
Joshua Zirkzee has already opened personally to a move to Juventus — and Massara’s admiration for the Dutch forward stretches back years. The operation, however, is directly and unavoidably linked to Jonathan David’s departure. The Canadian striker, contracted at €6 million per year until 2030, refuses to consider Hull City’s approach — the English club’s proposal has been firmly rejected, with David apparently still hoping to change Spalletti’s mind about his technical value. That hope is misplaced, but it is proving difficult to dislodge. Paris FC remain the most credible alternative exit route, though no agreement has been reached.
The Left-Back: Cabal First, Then the Market
The same sequencing applies to the left-back position. Juan Cabal must find a new club — Bologna remain interested in a loan arrangement — before any incoming option can be pursued. The names in the frame are familiar: Emerson Palmieri via the Marseille-Di Gregorio channel; Carlos Augusto of Inter as the dream; Hugo Bueno of Wolves as an accessible alternative. Alejandro Baldé has also been mentioned.
The logic of the window’s final ten days at Juventus is crystalline: every incoming deal is held hostage by an outgoing one. The exits are the key to everything. And the clock, on the morning of Friday 21 August — two days before Frosinone — is running faster than ever.
