CM EXCLUSIVE Romano: How Juve ended up with Hernanes
The Prophet is undoubtedly among Juventus’ early season flops, never fully part of Allegri’s system and now a simple sub.
Marotta’s recent statement to the shareholders (“We didn’t think we’d brought in someone amazing”) had just as much to do with provoking Inter as it did with the fact that the Hernanes transfer wasn’t something the Bianconeri were ever completely invested in.
So how did Juventus – and thus Marotta-Paratici- end up coughing up €11 million for the Brazilian?
To find out, we need to cycle through Juventus’ summer targets, something the Old Lady incidentally did as deadline day approached. One of their major targets, Julian Draxler, was spirited away by Wolfsburg’s humongous offer. You win some, you lose some.
Even before then, the Bianconeri had inquired about Mario Gotze and Isco to Real Madrid, both of whom expressed their firm desire to remain at the Santiago Bernabeu. In fact, the Merengues even had the cheek to ask Juventus for €60 million for the diminutive Spaniard.
This is when Marotta and Paratici decided to veer towards Hernanes, to which Inter Milan said no. At the time, Mateo Kovacic’s future was still in doubt, and Felipe Melo was still a transfer target himself. The Nerazzurri had more questions than answers in midfield, and didn’t want to deprive themselves of the Brazilian, who had come in handy towards the end of the previous season.
This repeated stonewalling left Juventus without a spark in midfield on the night of the 30th of August, when the Bianconeri decided to make a plunge for Hernanes. They’d just been told by Palermo president Maurizio Zamparini that they couldn’t nab Franco Vazquez too, and settled for the last player on their radar who could bring something different to the attack.
Enter Max Allegri. Asked for his opinion, the Livornese coach was far from ecstatic. The talk is that he was behind that dismissive Marotta soundbyte. Still, the Bianconeri had to move quickly: knowing they wouldn’t be able to land any of their midfield objectives in January, they ended up spending 11 million (plus a bonus of two million more) on someone who has turned out to be of scant use.
Apparently Hernanes’ entourage put a lot of pressure on the club: angry at how Mancini had dumped him, they now asked for guaranteed playing time, and could at least offer a European passport to avoid filling up Juve’s non-Eu quota.
What does the future hold for Hernanes’ career as a juventino? It’s hard to say. Even with all those benchings in Milan, he was able to bring something different to the table in the second half of last season. The former Lazio talisman can certainly surprise people, for good or for bad. Let's hope for that it's the former...
