Why Juventus should cut their losses from Adrien Rabiot’s child problem while they still have a chance

When Juventus completed the free signing of Paris Saint-Germain star Adrien Rabiot, the entire football world nodded, knowing that no one could get these blows like the Old Lady.

A young, exciting and promising midfielder, pinched at one of the biggest clubs in Europe, for nothing? They have done it again.

The young Frenchman was now rubbing shoulders with people like Andrea Pirlo, Paul Pogba, Fabio Cannavaro, Kingsley Coman, Dani Alves, Aaron Ramsey and many more who have moved to Turin without the pressures of a transfer fee that weighs heavily on his back.

It is safe to say that you are in an elite company.

But just because you’ve followed in the footsteps of these giants doesn’t mean you can fill your boots. In fact, many in Turin wonder if he is worth cleaning his stallions. With less than a year to live at Allianz Stadium, rumors suggest that Rabiot’s time in Serie A may already be over, with players like Manchester United and Everton looking for a move for the underprivileged Frenchman.

If Juventus made any sense, they would take him to the airport in person.

Although some may label Rabiot’s signature of I Bianconeri as ‘Classic Juve’, it was actually far from its normal commercial maneuver. Pursuing their possible free transfer signings in previous years, the Serie A giants focused on experienced players whose time at their current club was drawing to a close.

The likes of Alves, Sami Khedira and Fernando Llorente were proven stars, who had experience playing at the highest level, and their track record was reason enough to take the plunge.

Juve also sought to aspire to any young talent who wasn’t getting a good shot at the club level, and their relatively low-risk strategy reaped massive rewards, turning people like Pogba and Coman into big gains after settling down in football. first level.

Rabiot, on the other hand, fell somewhere between those two criteria. At 24, he was not a teenage prodigy begging for a crack at the big time, nor was he an experienced boss looking for a new challenge.

Instead, the midfielder was simply a figure of misery in his environment, and his disruptive presence throughout the team was too much for PSG, who banished him to train with the reserves for the last six months of his contract.

This treatment led Rabiot’s mother (and agent) to describe her son as a “prisoner” in Paris, which sealed his fate with the Ligue 1 champions. That is the same mother who is allegedly pushing for her Son, leave Juventus for the Premier League this summer, you will be surprised to discover it.

And that wasn’t even the first example of such troubling character flaws. Rabiot publicly lashed out at France’s national team coach Didier Deschamps, after he was left out of the 2018 World Cup team, and subsequently refused to be named on hold in case of injury.

He had also suffered conflicts with former coach Thomas Tuchel over his attitude. A brilliant CV.

But despite these blatant warning signs, Juve deemed him worthy of a gamble, and since he had drawn attention so noticeably to PSG’s midfield for over five years, it felt like a win-win situation for the giants of Serie A.

If it lives up to expectations, then it will be a global superstar. If not, then it can be sent for a considerable sum and we can all forget that this experiment ever happened.

But if something seems too good to be true, most of the time it is because it is not.

The fanfare surrounding Rabiot’s arrival quickly turned to confusion as he struggled to get onto the field for Juventus. Maurizio Sarri gave him 27 minutes of action in the first game of the season, and that was the luck of the midfielder for the next three games, as the Italian coach chose to select compatriot Blaise Matuidi instead.

As the games progressed, Rabiot gained Sarri’s trust, and was a regular figure in I Bianconeri’s midfield, until his last two games. But despite making 17 league appearances, there was a question on the lips of all Juve fans.

What does Rabiot really do?

Well, a brief look at the 25-year-old’s statistics will tell you that he is not an offensive midfielder. 0 league goals and 0 assists are concerning, but to be fair, that’s not really in his job description. Rabiot made a name for himself as an elegant passer and ball dealer, and has always been confident in dictating the pace of a game.

However, much of his best work often came from breaking the game and taking a back seat when PSG’s attacking stars dealt the most damage. It was a comfortable job, when you’re an efficient cog in the most expensive and overwhelming machine in an entire country.

Juventus may be similar to PSG in their dominance of Italian football, but they are by no means as financially superior to their rivals as the French champions. Serie A is a hard-fought battle for Juve, with different challenges posed each year by various adversaries, who are desperate to end the Old Lady’s monopoly scudetto.

And Rabiot could have been trapped by this. The midfielder may not have learned and developed as much as he thought he had done during his time with les Parisiens. The games seem to overlook him in Italy, and he simply seems unable to change the outcome of a match. Not once did Rabiot grab a game by the neck, and in a club like Juventus, that won’t work.

The French come and go, but his periods of lethargy and ineffectiveness far outweigh his miserable positive contribution. And Rabiot’s inability to prevail contrasts with that of midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur, who has convinced fans that he is the future of Juve’s midfield.

The Uruguayan star is really lucky, and at just 22 years old, he is ready to mix it with the greats. With its combative tough fighting style and smart pass range, Bentancur seems like a much safer bet to bet on than the Rabiot butterfly, who enters and exits games with such fragility.

And if that wasn’t reason enough to get rid of, the arrival of summer simply doesn’t fit the spirit and profile of the club.

Even with Cristiano Ronaldo at his side, Juventus plays a team game. It’s about organization, fighting for each other and doing the job as a unit. Fine there well.

Rabiot excels as a man who has spent years trusting people like Neymar, Kylian Mbappé, and Angel Di Maria to produce individual magic to demoralize and crush his humble opposition, rather than force the problem himself.

All in all, it doesn’t look good for the midfielder.

Rabiot’s mother may be trying to force her son to try new waters, but he may end up being pushed off the board before he can jump off the ship.