The Director General of Juventus, Giuseppe Marotta says that the Italian champions will be back for Athletic Club player Fernando Llorente during the winter transfer window.
Marotta mentioned the Real Madrid coach when asked by journalists about the matter.
“Mourinho says that Llorente will play for Juventus in January? Well, he’s generally very well informed, of course, he’s a player we are interested in. We’ll see if he’s still on the market in the winter,” he stated.
The comments were picked up by the Turin newspaper ‘Tuttosport’, which also claims that Juventus has already reached a preliminary agreement with the striker and that the only reason that he did notcome in the summer was because of Athletic Bilbao´s President, Urrutia’s refusal to lower the international’s transfer fee.
The Italian club was not prepared to pay the €36 million release clause, but it looks like it will go back on the hunt in January. Urrutia will have no choice but to sit down and negotiate if he does not want Llorente to leave on a Bosman at the end of the season once his contract with Athletic is up. In fact, the player will be free to start looking for a new home for the upcoming 2013/14 season in February.
Juventus is not ruling out other options in case it is unable to bring in the Spanish international in January, and the next on the list in order of preference is Didier Drogba.
