Juventus have reportedly agreed to pay a whopping £35m for Steven N’Zonzi not long after they offered Arsenal £4.4m for Wojciech Szczeny.
The £35m release clause, which will be paid to Sevilla in instalments, represents a £28m profit for the Spanish side given that they bought him from Stoke for under £7m just two summers ago.
So what has N’Zonzi done to warrant this sort of price tag?
Well, last season he played in 35 La Liga games, scoring two and assisting three, so ‘nothing’ would seem to be the answer to that question.
He averaged under one shot per game last season in the league, played 17 key passes and created 20 chances. He managed three goals and three assists in 46 games across all competitions.
Of course, he’s a defensive midfielder so scoring and creating aren’t really his wheelhouse and I’m just being petty but are we really going to believe that he’s worth the same amount as Granit Xhaka? Or seven times more valuable than Woj?
Szczesny, meanwhile, was one of the best keepers in Europe last season and is seen by the Old Lady as the perfect replacement for one of the best goalkeepers the world has ever seen, Gianluigi Buffon.
If I wasn’t still so confused over why Arsenal are willing to let Woj go I’d be thoroughly insulted by all this.