Saturday evening at the Continassa, with the Parma match hours away, has produced one of the most frenetic transfer afternoons of the entire summer. Two simultaneous midfield crises have forced Carnevali and Massara into immediate and urgent action — and a name from entirely unexpected territory has emerged as the latest idea: Pape Sarr of Tottenham Hotspur.
A Double Blow — Kessié and Thuram in the Same Afternoon
The context is stark. Kessié has communicated that the conditions are not in place for an agreement with Juventus — and in a further development that reframes the entire story, the Ivorian has subsequently decided to return to Atalanta, the club with whom he spent formative years of his career. Simultaneously, the news that Thuram is flying to Lyon to consult specialist Bertrand Sonnery-Cottet — with surgery a genuine possibility — has transformed a midfield situation that was merely thin into one that is dangerously short of numbers and quality.
Pape Sarr: A Tottenham Name from a Very Familiar Source
According to Sky Sport, Juventus have added Pape Sarr to a list that already included AC Milan’s Youssouf Fofana and former Inter captain Marcelo Brozović. The Senegalese international, born in 2002 and contracted to Tottenham until June 2030, has not been selected or even called up to De Zerbi’s squad in any of the opening fixtures of the season — a transparent institutional signal that he is available for departure.
The Juventus approach is at an early stage: gathering information, assessing whether the player would be willing to move on a loan with right of purchase. Galatasaray, whose domestic transfer window remains open beyond the European deadline, have also expressed interest — giving the situation a competitive dimension. The connection to Tottenham through the Vicario loan is an existing one that could help facilitate dialogue.
What Sarr Would Bring
At 24, Sarr is a physically imposing, energetic box-to-box midfielder capable of covering significant ground and contributing in both defensive and offensive phases. His 141 Tottenham appearances have produced 11 goals — a respectable return for a player of his profile — but the more relevant quality in Juventus’s current emergency is his ability to add genuine intensity and physicality to a midfield that, with Thuram potentially facing surgery, risks becoming technically able but physically lightweight. He is not the orchestrator or playmaker Spalletti has been seeking all summer. He is something different — and something urgently needed.
The Window Closes in Three Days
Fofana, Brozović, and Sarr now constitute the midfield shortlist in its most immediate form. The window closes on 1 September at 8pm. The Parma match is tonight. And Carnevali and Massara — who have navigated one of the most complex and ultimately successful transfer summers in the club’s recent history — must now find one final answer to one final pressing question, against the tightest of deadlines. The summer that refused to end is not finished yet.
