Juventus' sporting director has rubbished claims the club want to replace their outgoing manager Massimiliano Allegri with Pep Guardiola.
Fabio Paratici, who has been in the role at the club since 2010, said there has been no contact with the Catalan manager, and seemed baffled by the rumours.
Allegri will leave the Bianconeri after their final Serie A game against Sampdoria ended in a 2-0 defeat, and Chelsea's Maurizio Sarri and Tottenham's Mauricio Pochettino are amongst the other managers linked with the job.
But it appears Guardiola is definitely not an option, and Paratici said: “I think we live in a strange world.”
“We didn’t have any contact, we never even thought about it, because [Guardiola] is under contract, for a thousand reasons.
“We have clear ideas, we have already said it, we are doing our evaluations, and there are still many competitions in progress. Until all the competitions end, it seems to me right, out of respect for everyone to remain in this situation.”
Paratici was also keen to stress that the club were in no rush to make new signings, and would wait for the new manager to arrive before making any decisions.
“We will act according to what the new coach’s directives will be," he said.
“Before we move on, we will wait, very calmly. We try to improve every year.”
He also denied the speculation that attacking midfielder Paulo Dybala would be sold this summer. The Argentinean international had been linked with a move to the likes of Manchester United , but Paratici assured supporters the player would be going nowhere.
He said: “He is one of our players, we have great confidence in him, the investment we made four years ago and the renewal of the contract is proof of this.
“Dybala is a Juventus player, a very important player for us.”
