In a transfer market shaken by the coronavirus pandemic, swap deals may prove popular as a way for clubs to structure moves creatively without huge amounts of cash to hand.
Though they have long been a staple of Italian football, swaps often seem to be viewed with a degree of mistrust elsewhere. As Manchester United and Arsenal can attest after their experience with Alexis Sanchez and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, exchanging players is an imprecise science even by football’s standards.
According to Sky Sports reporter Gianluca Di Marzio, Chelsea and Juventus could take a chance on a swap involving Jorginho and Miralem Pjanic this summer.
Jorginho has been lined up for a reunion with former Napoli mentor Maurizio Sarri ever since the latter left Stamford Bridge in a puff of cigarette smoke to reprise his role as Serie A’s answer to Oscar the Grouch.
Ironically, having been criticised for his one-note performances while Sarri was in charge, Jorginho has been much improved this season under Frank Lampard. Nonetheless, the call of the Bianconeri may well appeal to a player who once received major plaudits in Italy.
Pjanic, meanwhile, was once rated as one of the best young players in the world but, having just turned 30, he is no longer a star of the future. Were the swap to go ahead, here’s what Chelsea could expect from the deal.
Miralem Pjanic profile
Age: 30
Nationality: Bosnian
Former clubs: FC Schifflange 95, Metz, Lyon, Roma
How does Pjanic compare to Jorginho?
Though, much like Jorginho, Pjanic is mainly deployed as a deep-lying playmaker, he is marginally more versatile than his Chelsea counterpart and more comfortable further up the pitch. In his younger years at Roma he racked up assists in double figures across consecutive seasons in Serie A, while he has found the net far more often than Jorginho in his career.
That said, their attacking statistics over the last couple of seasons make for interesting reading. While Jorginho failed to register an assist in the Premier League last season and scored only two goals, he has two assists and four goals this term and his chance creation has been significantly improved.
Meanwhile, having tallied six assists and two goals in Serie A last season, Pjanic has only two assists and three goals this time around. Jorginho is actually having a better season going forwards, despite the fact that he is often typecast as a short-passing metronome.
Would Pjanic be a good fit at Chelsea?
All in all, there has been a noticeable decline in Pjanic’s attacking output over the last couple of years. Though he hasn’t scored more than five league goals in a single campaign for Juve since joining in 2016 – dwindling to only five in total across the last two seasons – he has at least been a reliable source of assists up until recently.
Chelsea have an established policy of only offering short-term deals to players over 30 and, as such, signing Pjanic would go against the grain. Given that Pjanic is two years older than Jorginho and they arrived at their current clubs for around £25m and £50m respectively, there’s also the question of what would represent a fair deal from a financial perspective.
Pjanic is still an enormously talented midfielder with excellent vision and, given that he has also been linked with Barcelona, it would be premature to suggest his decline is permanent. He wouldn’t be the first player to labour under Sarri’s tactical blueprint, as Chelsea fans can attest, and it’s possible that he is suffering through middling form as opposed to irreversible deterioration.
Not only does Pjanic seem like an odd fit in terms of Chelsea’s transfer strategy, however, his arrival would also crowd an area of the midfield which is already well-stocked and graced with youngsters like Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Billy Gilmour.
While it’s not hard to picture Jorginho heading to Juve given his longstanding connection with Sarri, whether or not Chelsea would want Pjanic in return is another question.
