Juventus Considering De Gea as Martinez Deal Stalls
Juventus are back in a familiar place this summer: staring at a short‑term fix while talking about a long‑term project.
According to Calciomercato, the Turin club will turn to David De Gea if they cannot prise Emiliano Martinez away in the coming weeks. Martinez remains the priority, the headline name to push Michel Di Gregorio, yet there is no guarantee Aston Villa will open the door. So the contingency plan has a very familiar face.
De Gea, now at Fiorentina, has forced his way back into the conversation the hard way. After a spell out of the game as a free agent, he dropped into Serie A and quietly rebuilt his reputation. Ten clean sheets in 37 league appearances last season, 11 in his debut campaign. The numbers say he is still very much alive at this level.
Dig a little deeper and the analytics back that up. His goals-prevented figure climbed to +1.06 last season, up from 0.59 the year before – not the peak version that once carried Manchester United, but a goalkeeper still making a positive difference. At 35, he remains competent, authoritative, and unflustered by pressure.
Juventus see more than just shot-stopping. They see experience, personality, leadership – the traits Luciano Spalletti values in the spine of his team. De Gea helped steady a Fiorentina side that had flirted dangerously with the drop, playing a key role as they pulled away from relegation trouble after “flying too close to the sun”.
On paper, it makes sense. A veteran who knows the demands of a big club, ready to compete with Di Gregorio without demanding a decade-long commitment. The Old Lady has always been drawn to this type of profile.
And that is exactly the problem.
Juve have spent years patching holes with veterans while the rest of Europe scours the market for the next great thing. The pattern is familiar: a short-term solution arrives, the squad inches older, and the long-term plan gets pushed to another window.
The goalkeeping position should be different. This is where a club with Juventus’ ambitions ought to be bold. The brief is clear: find a young, ambitious goalkeeper who can grow, push Di Gregorio for the No. 1 shirt, and eventually own it. Europe is full of that kind of talent, keepers with the tools to become elite if given time and trust.
Yet the links keep circling back to players approaching the end of their careers. It is the sort of thinking that has quietly eroded the squad over the years – not disastrous in the moment, but costly over time.
De Gea would bring know-how to the dressing room. He would not embarrass the shirt. He might even buy a season or two of stability.
What he would not do is move the project forward.
If Juventus are serious about building a team to dominate Serie A again and punch properly in Europe, the next move in goal has to be more than another stopgap. The choice between Martinez, De Gea and a younger, developing profile will say a lot about which version of Juventus walks into the new era.
