The draws for the 2016/17 Serie A season will be made on Friday with the opening day set for the third weekend of August.
Although this summer’s transfer market will not come to a conclusion until the end of next month, there are already strong indications that the gap between Juventus and the rest of the teams in the top flight will continue to widen.
Juventus, the first Italian club to complete the double in successive years, have acquired the services of two defenders in Dani Alves (free agent) and Medhi Benatia (Bayern Munich).
The Bianconeri will also have two new midfielders in Miralem Pjanic (Roma) and Rolando Mandragora (Pescara) as the highly-rated Marko Pjaca (Dynamo Zagreb) is said to be very close to completing his switch to Turin.
For sure, Juventus have some unfinished business in the ongoing transfer window.
Paul Pogba, the mercurial midfielder for whom they paid a pittance (around €1m) this time four years ago to sign him from Manchester United, could be involved in a headline-grabbing return to Old Trafford in a deal estimated to be in the region of €120m.
Real Madrid are also keeping Pogba under their radar.
Juve lost the services of Alvaro Morata, after Real Madrid activated a buy-back clause, paying the Italian champions around €30m to get their striker back.
Rumours are now rife that Juve have set their sights on Serie A top scorer Gonzalo Higuain, of Napoli, to fill the void left by Morata.
The Argentine hitman, who joined Napoli from Real Madrid three years ago for €40m, has a buy-out clause of €94m inserted in his contract.
Meanwhile, Inter captain Mauro Icardi is also being linked with a move to Juventus should they fail to land Higuain this summer.
On the final day of last season, Higuain scored a hat-trick in a 4-0 home win over Frosinone to finish top of the scorers’ list with a remarkable 36 goals, breaking Gunnar Nordahl’s record of 35 goals (established in season 1949/50).
Financial means
Higuain is said to be keen to seal a move up north.
If the transfer was to happen, Juventus would acquire one of the deadliest strikers in circulation, confirming they are the best-equipped side in the Serie A and a true force to reckon with in the Champions League.
Some contend that Juventus still have the financial means to ac-quire Higuain without having to sell Pogba. In Italy, other transfer rumours are linking central de-fender Leonardo Bonucci with a €60m move to Manchester City, now coached by Pep Guardiola.
Whatever happens this summer, history shows that Juventus have always replaced quality with quality.
Many times, they also succeeded in acquiring truly quality players at basement prices. The cases of Pogba, Andrea Pirlo (free agent in 2011), Andrea Barzagli (€500,000 from Wolfsburg in 2011), Patrice Evra (€2m from Manchester United in 2014) and others testify this.
The transfer market strategy currently adopted by Juventus is also to lure the best players from Serie A rivals to their fold, thus weakening the opposition and be-come stronger themselves.
In the past few weeks, Dynamo Zagreb were reported to have agreed terms with Inter, first, and later with Napoli and Milan to offload Pjaca.
Then, out of nowhere, Juventus came to the fore and now they are reported to be very close to signing the 21-year-old Croatia international winger.
The rumours alone linking Juventus with Higuain have already unsettled Napoli, let alone if they manage to prise the 28-year-old striker from the San Paolo.
The fact that Juventus have won five titles in a row shows that their supremacy is no fluke.
My first impression from the ongoing transfer market dealings is that the sixth successive scudetto will be there for Juve’s taking.
This time around, however, Allegri’s side will not limit themselves to domestic dominance only as they seek to reach the summit of European club football for the first time in more than a decade.