Juventus’ rumored deal for Lens defender Kevin Danso appears to be a no-go

Well, so much for that idea, it seems.

As the day came to a close Thursday, it looked as though Juventus had secured (or were at least close to securing) the services of another central defender on a short-term loan deal in the form of RC Lens’ Kevin Danso.

Less than 24 hours later, it looks like the talks between Juventus and Lens are very much not proving to be as fruitful as they were the day before.

According to reports from Fabrizio Romano and Matteo Moretto on Friday, Juventus’ chances of signing Danso look very much not as close to what they were when news broke of Cristiano Giuntoli being close to closing a deal for the 26-year-old Austrian on Thursday. Instead, talks reportedly continued between the two clubs without much of a final closing of the deal, with La Gazzetta dello Sport’s Giovanni Albanese saying an agreement wasn’t actually reached between Juve and Lens despite Danso’s desire to secure a move to Turin.

Because of a Danso deal not getting closed, Romano says Juventus “are focusing on different targets” in the center of defense.

When news broke that Juve had agreed to a deal for Danso, it was reported by multiple outlets that they had agreed to a short-term loan worth €2.5 million plus another €1.5 million in bonuses. As previously stated, Danso was pushing for the move, and Juve’s interest in him had stretched back at least a couple of weeks.

But, with hindsight, it appears things weren’t as close to being done as we thought.

With Pierre Kalulu suddenly out for at least a couple of weeks, it was easy to figure out that Giuntoli wanted to bring in another defender so that Federico Gatti and another short-term loan signing, Renato Veiga, weren’t the only two natural center backs heading into a busy month of February. Danso appeared to be that player and that he was going to arrive before Deadline Day on Monday.

So much for that, I guess. Time to figure something else out — which is a thought process that has crossed my mind regarding Juventus’ transfer activity way too much lately.