Why Juventus abandoned their move for Jordan Henderson | OneFootball

An insight into the decision of Juventus to abandon the club’s pursuit of free agent midfielder Jordan Henderson has been provided late this evening.

The name of England international Henderson, of course, had taken its place front and centre in the headlines in Turin over the course of the last couple of weeks. This came after word was forthcoming that the powers that be at the Allianz Stadium had identified the 33-year-old as a potential January addition.

Henderson recently saw his contract terminated by Saudi outfit Al-Ettifaq, on the back of a tumultuous six-month spell in the Middle East.

Cristiano Giuntoli and co, in turn, earmarked the former Liverpool man as a possible low-risk, high-reward signing.

In the end, however, Juventus opted not to follow through on their initial interest, with Henderson having since put pen to paper on terms with Dutch giants Ajax.

So, what exactly swayed the Bianconeri towards pulling the plug on their pursuit?

Well, as alluded to above, an insight into precisely that has been forthcoming on Thursday evening.

The info comes courtesy of Giovanni Albanese of La Gazzetta dello Sport, who has cited a quartet of reasons as being behind the call made by Massimiliano Allegri and his team:

With Juve looking to mount a Scudetto challenge, they believed that the England international would not help in moving the needle in that regard. With young players emerging in the current XI, the addition of an older player like Henderson would’ve disbalanced the squad.

The midfielder’s lack of Serie A experience also weighed heavily against him and the fact that he didn’t speak Italian was seen as a disadvantage by Juve.

Conor Laird | GIFN