Juven­tus signed Southamp­ton mid­field­er Car­los Alcaraz in the win­ter trans­fer win­dow on a loan deal with an option to buy.

Hav­ing start­ed just 13 Cham­pi­onship games under Rus­sell Mar­tin, Saints allowed Alcaraz to depart in Janau­ry.

The 2002-born was deployed in mul­ti­ple posi­tions by Mar­tin but strug­gled to real­ly nail down a place in the start­ing eleven.

Juve brought him in on a loan deal with a lofty option to buy worth £42m, though, news has just emerged sug­gest­ing the club won’t be acti­vat­ing the clause, at the price.

Juventus want to keep Southampton’s Carlos Alcaraz

Alcaraz has made four appear­ances for the Serie A giants since arriv­ing.

The 21-year-old has missed the last two fix­tures due to a ham­string injury but could return after the inter­na­tion­al break.

Juve are keen to keep the tal­ent­ed mid­field­er at the club beyond his ini­tial loan spell but aren’t pre­pared to pay the siz­able buy option.

Accord­ing to Cal­cio Mer­ca­to, the Ital­ian out­fit only insert­ed the clause at such a high rate to tempt Saints into allow­ing a mid-sea­son depar­ture.

The report claims it’s ‘unlike­ly’ he’ll be signed for the £42m fee and instead the two par­ties could rene­go­ti­ate a new deal.

Juve want to renew his loan and poten­tial­ly dis­cuss new fig­ures.

Southampton should allow Carlos Alcaraz to depart

Even though they may not be receiv­ing the £42m they’d hoped for in the sum­mer, Southamp­ton should still allow Alcaraz to depart at a reduced fee.

The Argenti­na youth inter­na­tion­al isn’t fan­cied by Mar­tin and there is lit­tle point keep­ing him at the club if he is only going to play a bit part role.

Giv­en the cur­rent Finan­cial Fair Play issues around the leagues, Saints must be shrewd in the mar­ket and now allow for a Prof­it and Sus­tain­abil­i­ty breach.

If they do remain a Cham­pi­onship club next sea­son, the empha­sis on sell­ing Alcaraz will only ampli­fy and Juve would assume a more pow­er­ful posi­tion on the nego­ti­at­ing table.

Clear­ly, he is much more val­ued in Italy, any­how, and has impressed enough for the club to eye a per­ma­nent deal, so it seems best for both par­ties to rene­go­ti­ate a new fee in the sum­mer.

Giv­en his age and room for devel­op­ment, Saints should con­sid­er sanc­tion­ing a sale for between £25–30m with a sub­stan­tial sell-on fee.

That way the club cov­ers itself in the event Alcaraz ful­fils his poten­tial and moves on from Juven­tus for a con­sid­er­able amount.

Related Topics