Rugani Juventus Verona Serie A

Rugani’s agent rubbishes claims of Chelsea transfer talks

Juventus defender Daniele Rugani has been linked with a move to Chelsea if Maurizio Sarri takes the reins at Stamford Bridge, but his agent insists no talks have been held.

The 23-year-old Italy international has also been mentioned as a possible makeweight in a move by the Bianconeri to take Sergej Milinkovic-Savic from Serie A rivals Lazio.

Again, though, the centre-halves’ representative is adamant that no transfer discussions have taken place.

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David Torchia was recently spotted meeting with Juve’s director of sport Fabio Paratici in Milan, but he maintains that the future of Rugani never came up.

He told Sportitalia on the mounting exit talk surrounding Rugani, who previously worked under Chelsea-linked Sarri during a loan spell at Empoli: “I know that nobody will believe me, but I met with Paratici because it was already scheduled. I didn’t know there was going to be this storm the day before.

“We talked about how to improve the player and what to do going forward, but we didn’t set up any negotiations.”

Torchia added on the Lazio rumours: “Absolutely not, Daniele has never been offered to anyone, let alone Lazio.

“We can’t say for sure in life that the player is off the market completely, but we can confirm no formal offers have arrived.

“He is happy to be there and Juve are happy with him. It was purely a coincidence we had this meeting after those reports. I can assure you we did not talk about Chelsea.”

Rugani is a product of Juve’s academy system and has made 20-plus senior appearances in each of the last three seasons – landing Serie A titles in all of them.

He has also earned seven caps for Italy and is tied to a long-term contract in Turin which is due to run until 2021.

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