Since returning to the upper echelon of Italian football, Juventus’ management has commonly been associated with shrewd, calculated moves on the transfer window. The deal for Alvaro Morata, however, was exactly the opposite.
Paul Pogba, Andrea Pirlo, Sami Khedira, Kingsley Coman, Dani Alves and Fernando Llorente, all acquired for a grand total of zero euros. The list of Juventus’ impressive transfers over the last five seasons is truly a long one. When Juventus were negotiating with Real Madrid for Alvaro Morata, optimism surrounding the club was at an all-time high. The Old Lady of Italian football was about to send a message to the rest of Europe and snatch one of Los Galacticos’ most promising strikers. Once the deal was finalized, however, it was clear that there was only one winner in this deal and it was Real Madrid.
After weeks of negotiating, Juventus agreed to pay Real Madrid 20 million euros for Morata. Given his immense upside and potential, this was considered a steal in today’s market. That said, the Spanish giants were wise enough to insert a 30 million euros buy-back option in the deal that they could exercise in the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 campaigns. It leaves one to wonder why Juventus, a club so astute on the transfer market, allowed such an option in the deal for Morata. Initially, the deal bringing Morata to Turin from Real Madrid was an indication that Juventus could go head-to-head on the transfer market with Europe’s heavy weights. When the details of the deal were announced, on the other hand, it showed Juventus hadn’t quite taken that step yet. Earlier I mentioned that Real Madrid were the only winners in this deal and I’ll explain why now.
If Morata went to Juventus and didn’t quite pan out like they expected him to, Zidane’s side would have turned a 20 million euro profit on a bust. Luckily for Juventus that didn’t happen and the Spaniard improved substantially during his stay with the club. Morata was able to play a crucial role in their Scudetto and European campaigns over the last two seasons. Despite milking a few good campaigns out of him and helping him develop into one of football’s most promising strikers, Juventus will only turn a profit of 10 million euros. We’re talking about a striker who only made three starts in his last season at Real Madrid. At Juventus, he was given an important role in his first season and eventually established himself as the number one striker partnership with Carlos Tevez. Together, the duo wrecked havoc and led Juventus to the Champions League final. In his 12 appearances in last season’s Champions League, Morata scored five goals, including the winner in the semi-finals against Real Madrid and the equalizer in the final against Barcelona.
When looking at it from that perspective, Juventus did get key contributions from Morata in his two-year stay at the club. But was it worth the 10 million euros profit and having to restart from scratch again? Given the harsh reality of the striker market, the bianconeri will find it increasingly difficult to replace Morata’s output at a decent price. All the touted replacements at the moment either need developing like Morata when he first arrived or are simply overpriced. See: Romelu Lukaku. This further makes you wonder why Juventus were content with developing a player for one of Europe’s elite clubs and sending him back with little to no benefit. In the past, Juventus’ management have stated a player’s will as the cause for his stay or even departure. When talking about the Morata transaction, Juventus’ sporting director Giuseppe Marotta has often said that the player will ultimately make the final decision and could choose to stay. Considering the circumstances, Morata was always going to leave if it all depended on his will.
The 23-year-old grew up in the Real Madrid Castilla and represented Los Blancos at every level growing up. Every time he spoke about the club in the media when he was at Juventus, he spoke highly of them and never hid his desire to one day return. When he scored the crucial goal in last year’s Champions League semi-final against them, he didn’t even celebrate. While that has become the norm in modern football, a player who has just sent his team into the Champions League final should normally express more emotion. It would also be foolish to forget that Real Madrid won Europe’s elite competition in Morata’s last year at the club and repeated the feat last season. Given the importance put on the competition and likelihood of winning it at Juventus v Real Madrid, it certainly played on role in his decision. Ultimately, the factors at play always favoured Morata picking Real Madrid over Juventus.
Sure, the prospect of having a bigger role at Juventus is enticing but was he going to turn down his boyhood club for it? Moreover, over the course of the last season Massimiliano Allegri’s preferred strike partnership was Mario Mandzukic and Paulo Dybala with Morata on the bench. When looking at the characteristics of the three players, it’s normal. Simply put, Mandzukic fits better with Dybala than Morata does. That’s another factor that could have easily played a part in this deal.
The stability in Turin is another thing that could play a part, however, it’s not like he’s not familiar with life at Real Madrid. If anything, life in Spain is much easier for him than life in Italy. All things considered, if Morata’s will was a deciding factor (and we don’t know if it is yet) Juventus uncharacteristically set themselves up to fail from the get-go.
After years of excellent management from Andrea Agnelli, Giuseppe Marotta and Fabio Paratici, the Morata deal or “El Buyback” as it has been dubbed, will forever remain a black asterisk on a highly impressive CV. Even if Real Madrid decide to sell him to the highest bidder, which right now is looking like Chelsea or Arsenal, they will turn a pretty profit off the back of Juventus’ hard work. The reality is that Morata left Real Madrid a boy and returns a man ready to take Europe by storm. And Los Blancos can thank Juve for that while the bianconeri start from square one with chump change in their pockets.
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