Kelly Transfer to Juventus Was a Long Time Coming | OneFootball

Juventus nabbed Lloyd Kelly in late January shortly after Pierre Kalulu got hurt, but the move could have happened in previous windows already. Director Cristiano Giuntoli had been following him since his Napoli days. The Old Lady first pursued him a year ago, when he had just six months on his contract with Bournemouth. The transfer didn’t come together at the time, as he stayed put and left as a free agent. The Bianconeri signed Tiago Djaló instead, Tuttomercatoweb’s Mirko Di Natale reports.

The interest was rekindled after Fikayo Tomori nixed the transfer to Turin. The Magpies didn’t want to part ways with him at first. However, they eventually realized that they had the chance to turn a profit on him, which would have helped them with the FSR. Moreover, he wasn’t a regular starter.

Newcastle United initially repelled Juventus, Olympique Marseille, and Borussia Dortmund because they asked for Kelly on loan with an option to buy. They wanted a permanent sale.

The Old Lady was scrambling for a defender after a pair of debacles and got closer to the request. The parties met halfway. He joined temporarily but will be bought out automatically if his new team qualifies for a European competition. He slightly cut his wages to facilitate the move. The Bianconeri will cover his €1.2M residual salary the rest of the way. He debuted versus Como and made his first start versus PSV.

Our Take on Juventus and Kelly

It wasn’t a particularly inspiring addition, as the fee will be robust for somebody who’ll be a rotational player at best, but coming up empty-handed would have been hurtful.