Rumour Mongering: Emre Can Not a Priority Target for Juventus

Liverpool fans have begun to feel as though Emre Can already has one foot out the door, and really it’s hardly surprising, with no movement towards a new deal, the player free to sign a pre-contract in January, and plenty of buzz about Juventus being interested in the player and the player being interested in Juventus.

Today, though, rumour mongers in Italy are offering hope that perhaps, in the end, Can will re-sign at Anfield. That perhaps the Juventus talk is really, in the end, the player and his agent playing their best bargaining chip in search of a significant wage bump and a release clause that would serve as playing time insurance.

That’s because Calciomercato are today saying that Can is at best third choice as Juventus look for midfield reinforcements, behind Schalke’s Leon Goretzka, Roma’s Kevin Strooman, and Monaco’s Fabinho, and that if they were to get one of those players in they would then take a wait and see approach with Can.

They might still in the end move for him—he can, after all, sign a pre-contract agreement to move on a free in the summer any time after the start of January—but the idea is that that would only happen after their squad had been assessed following the arrival of one of the players they see as a priority target.

At the very least it wouldn’t be a case of signing him to a pre-contract agreement on January first and then spending the rest of the month trying to push Liverpool to let him go early for a nominal fee. At the very least it might give Liverpool a bit of time and suggests Can to Juventus isn’t actually a done deal.

Or it could just be rumour mongers looking to fill column inches and get hits with a new story having gotten all the mileage they can—for the time being at least—out of Can and that Juventus and the player are, as many Liverpool fans expect and fear, just waiting for the new year so they can make things official.