Quote:
Juve consider Joaquin bid
Juventus are lining up a £12m bid for Real Betis winger Joaquin, according to reports in Italy.
The Spain international, who played in Betis’ 1-0 win over Chelsea on Tuesday night, is tied to the Seville club until 2010 and has a £41m minimum release fee built into his contract.
However, if the player wants to leave, the Seville club are likely to want to do business and according to the player’s agent and father, Aurelio Sanchez, his son is ready to take the next step up in his career.
Joaquin has been courted by Real Madrid and, most notably, Chelsea, over recent months, with Jose Mourinho repeatedly singing his praises.
The Portuguese tactician opted to buy Shaun Wright-Phillips in the close season instead, which leaves Juventus unlikely to have to fight the might of Roman Abramovic’s wallet.
“Betis will be better off letting him go this season,” said Sanchez. “Chelsea won’t find it easy to win this battle.”
Juventus Coach Fabio Capello (left) is also an admirer of the 24-year-old Spaniard and reputedly tried to sign him when he was at the helm a Roma.
Juve’s squad is certainly light on natural wingers and the purchase of Joaquin would certainly add more weight to Capello’s attacking options.
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Highly unlikely, but it would be a dream signing for us. He runs at defences, has great speed and is extremely skillful to boot. We have a lack of that at Juventus; Ibra can beat players, Zambro can, Alex can, Zalayeta can, Mutu can and Camo can sometimes. Only two of them are in our first team at present..and then we wonder why we can't carve out chances, we had 2 tops this past Saturday..and of course who will forget our 'shooting blanks' match last season against Liverpool at home.
Playmaker-sort-of-player is paramount.