Stephy Mavididi is set to join the Juventus B team in what is a surprising move for many.
The hotshot forward has been with Arsenal since he was just a kid, making his way through the Academy.
Arsenal will receive €2m for Mavidid’s signature and the player will sign a four-year deal in Turin after what the Italian site that broke the story call Juventus’s ‘full blitz’ on Arsenal. His immediate future will be in the Juventus B team. He has already passed his medical.
Mavididi looked set to impress on loan before serious injury scuppered him at Charlton after only five appearances. He returned to Arsenal before being sent out on loan again to Preston North End where he made 11 appearances. A second spell with Charlton in the second half of last season saw him play 15 times, scoring two and assisting one.
Initially, it might be hard to understand Arsenal’s logic when a club like Juventus are interested in the player. It’s natural to think there must be enough talent there for the coaches at Arsenal to work with. When you look at the situation realistically, however, Mavididi is already behind Eddie Nketiah, who himself still has to find a way past Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette.
Of course, the player could also be driving the move. Mavididi signed his first professional contract in the summer of 2015 and it could be that he won’t sign a new deal with the club, leaving them with little choice but to move him on or lose him for free next summer.
In other news Krystian Bielik joined Charlton on loan, Joel Campbell moved closer to a permanent move to Frosinone and David Ospina dropped his Napoli scarf as he heads for the exit.