Reports from Italy suggest that Juventus are ready to make an audacious January swoop for Barcelona defender Gerard Pique. Sports daily Tuttosport (via The Express) claims that Bianconeri boss Massimo Allegri is a huge fan of the 30-year-old and sources close to the Camp Nou believe that this will be the Spanish international’s final year at the club.
 

The Italian champions believe that they can beat off potential competition from the MLS and Chinese Super League to bring Pique to Turin. If this happens, he would not be the first Barcelona legend to swap Catalonia for Piedmont after Dani Alves’s move in the same direction last summer.
 

Having been nurtured in the club’s famed youth academy followed by a spell in England at Manchester United, Pique has developed into one of Europe’s toughest centre-halves  and had made over 250 appearances for the club he first joined in 1997.
 

Juventus have lost Leonardo Bonucci this summer and despite bringing in Benedikt Howedes before last Thursday’s transfer deadline, a shock January move for Pique could be on the cards.