Juventus is linked to several Chelsea players at a time anymore. The reasons why make sense and those stories will not go away anytime soon.
Maurizio Sarri is allegedly a man who is not interested in transfers or the transfer market. Despite that, he sure is linked to his former players a ton and not without reason. At Napoli and Chelsea, he has had a habit of seeing the club bring in his former players. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is probably a duck even if the one walking and quacking like one is saying he is uninterested in either activity.
That makes for easy transfer rumor writing regardless of the validity of the rumor. Chelsea, being Sarri’s most recent club, is obviously going to be the target of these rumors.
Juventus has primarily been linked to Emerson and Jorginho. They were briefly linked to N’Golo Kante and that is as ridiculous as any of the rumors. The thing is, Emerson and Jorginho going to Juventus seems entirely plausible which simply gives more credence to the rumors being pushed.
Step one is establish Sarri’s preference for the player. Jorginho is a give me because so much of his career is linked to Sarri and vice versa. Emerson is a little harder to push as he played 27 times to Marcos Alonso’s 39, but by the end of the season Sarri’s preference between the two was clear. Kante being linked is incredibly strange given Sarri due to the manager’s (unfair) criticisms of the player last season.
Step two is determine whether or not Chelsea needs the player. Emerson has hardly set the world alight during his Chelsea career and it seems quite clear that the Blues need a much better option at left back. Jorginho is a harder decision in that he has done quite well under Frank Lampard if not better than he did under Sarri. Still, Chelsea’s midfield is quite stacked and the right offer could see Jorginho depart to make room for other players. Then there is Kante, Chelsea’s only world class player (though Mateo Kovacic is making a strong case for it himself), and whether or not the Blues need him or not should be blatantly obvious.
The final step is what Juventus needs. Sarri has done as expected in his first season but he has hardly won over the fans of the club with his style of play. Like it was at Chelsea, there is a sense that the right players for his style could change the equation which is of course something that could be said about literally every manager at literally every club in the world.
Alex Sandro is not getting any younger and Emerson was long Juventus’ target to replace him. Sarri has not had a club without Jorginho to build around for years and there is a sense that Miralem Pjanic is not quite cutting it. And then any club in the world could use a player like Kante, but the assumption would be that he would replace Blaise Matuidi in the side. The main difference would be age because the notion that one “understands” Sarrismo better than the other would be pretty mute with both on a single season of it.
So of these three rumors, Emerson seems incredibly likely, Jorginho seems plausible, and Kante is a nonstarter. These rumors are sure to continue and it would not be surprising to see more players added on later on in the window. It will simply be a matter how much of Sarri’s tendencies rear their head again.