Ant McGinley, Jim Salveson and Lee Whitehouse discussed all the latest Premier League news during the most recent edition of the Football Social Daily podcast and the panel spent some time discussing the possibility of Juventus midfielder Aaron Ramsey joining Wolverhampton Wanderers as part of a swap deal that would see Wolves forward Raul Jimenez move in the opposite direction.
As per Corriere dello Sport, via the Daily Star, Wolves ‘have turned down’ a player-plus-cash offer from reigning Italian champions Juventus for Jimenez.
This report claims that I Bianconeri offered former Arsenal midfielder Ramsey plus cash to Wolves in exchange for the Mexican forward, however, the Turin-based club’s approach was rejected.
Ramsey joined Juventus last summer on a free transfer. According to the BBC, the Welshman signed a ‘£400k-a-week deal’ with the Italian club, that has seen him become ‘the highest-earning British player ever based on basic salary.’
However, Ramsey was not a standout player for Juventus in his first season with the club. He made 24 Serie A appearances for Juventus, 11 of which were starts, during the 2019/20 campaign, earning an overall rating of 6.63 from those appearances according to WhoScored. This made him Juventus’ 17th-highest rated player in the league for the 2019/20 season according to the stats website.
With that in mind, it may not be too surprising that Andrea Pirlo’s side are said to have offered him to Wolves, despite the fact that he only joined the Italian club last summer.
During this recent edition of the Football Social Daily podcast, McGinley shared his thoughts on the reports linking Ramsey with a move to Molineux in exchange for Jimenez.
He said: “I wonder if there’s something in this, speaking of Juventus again: apparently Juventus have offered cash plus Aaron Ramsey in return for Raul Jimenez.
“I don’t know if Ramsey would be keen on coming back and moving to Wolverhampton, I don’t think Wolves are interested in him as a player, but when you look at how Juventus have operated in the past, they will come back again and again.
“Wolves have slapped a price tag of around £90m on Jimenez – and Juventus would pay that.
“Especially when you look at the people he could be playing alongside, the disappointment in missing out on any European football for next season, he’s been absolutely brilliant, we know they’ve already turned down [an offer] from Manchester United. It would be a great loss to the Premier League, but I think given that he’s 29, this could be the time for that move.”
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So, while McGinley believes that “this could be the time” for Jimenez to depart from Wolves, following a season in which he scored 17 Premier League goals, the podcaster doesn’t appear to believe that Juventus’ attempts to exchange Ramsey for the attacker will be successful.
While Ramsey reportedly earns £400k per week at Juventus, Jimenez currently earns just over £41k per week at Wolves, according to Spotrac. With that disparity in wages in mind, as well as the fact that Ramsey is a midfielder and Wolves would still likely want to sign a replacement centre forward following Jimenez’s departure, it may be understandable why the club turned down Juventus’ offer and McGinley believes that Wolves aren’t interested in the Welshman.