If you believe spur of the moment rumors, Juve's loss may be Roma's gain. In the blink of an eye, Juventus went from the precipice of a four peat, to losing Antonio Conte amid rumors that the club where nearing deals to sell Arturo Vidal and Paul Pogba. While it remains to be seen if those two stars will be sold, it appears as though the man they tabbed as the next great Old Lady, Verona's Juan Iturbe, may be on his way to Roma for a reported €28 to €30m.
Thirty million is not a neighborhood Roma visits often--that's damn near Bautistuta money--so let's take this with a grain of salt. However, Roma have been chasing this kid for a few months now, and this latest twist kicked off in an instant, so perhaps Walter Sabatini smelled the blood in the water and decided to pounce.
No matter what you think of him, the kid is undeniably talented. In 33 appearances last season for Hellas Verona, Iturbe scored eight goals, contributed four assists and averaged 1.2 key passes per match and an astounding three successful dribbles per match. But, and this is a big but, outside of a handful of appearances for Porto, this was Iturbe's first and only taste of big-time football, so if you're a skeptic, consider you concerns warranted.
Whatever the case may be, this is damn near virgin territory for our beloved Roma. Even if €30 million proves to be a few million euros above the final mark, for that kind of money, Iturbe needs to produce now; there is no room for potential when you command that sort of price, if he really is the "New Messi", he needs to show it from day one.
We'll have much, much more to say about this if and when it comes to fruition.