Morata reaches agreement with Juventus

Spanish daily As is reporting that Real Madrid and Juventus are close to agreeing on terms for the transfer of Spanish youngster Alvaro Morata on Saturday. The Real Madrid youth product would join the Italian side beginning next season. The two clubs will meet next week in Turin to discuss, among other things, a possible friendly match--though the young striker's name will surely come up.

This bit of news comes at a rather precarious moment for Morata--after a season that saw both great moments and painful failures, a move away from Madrid to refine his skills seemed inevitable. He had been linked to EPL clubs Manchester United and Arsenal in recent weeks, but it seems that he prefers to jump to Italy like his colleague Fernando Llorente.

It should be interesting to see how the deal progresses: according to As, the only sticking point left is that Madrid want to include a buyback clause, and Juve want to retain the rights to the player's contract. A buyback clause seems like an absolutely essential inclusion, to me--Morata is quite young and has displayed tremendous potential. If he puts everything together he could become one of the world's premier talents at the position--and he'd be a home-grown Madridista.

However, it is possible that Juve, if they really want to retain the future rights to the young Spaniard, may have to include salivating prospect Arturo Vidal or Paul Pogba in some sort of swap deal. Ultimately, though, this seems like a straight money-for-talent swap--let's just hope Madrid remains firm with the buyback option.

Juventus and Real Madrid's boards will meet next Monday before the Corazón Classic Match that will be played by veteran players from both clubs, and some journalists can't stop wondering whether this might be a good time for both clubs to start negotiating for Paul Pogba's potential transfer to Real Madrid. One way or another, it now seems that Morata will be the first player leaving the club this summer.

If Morata does well and manages to impress, Real Madrid will always want to keep a buyout clause in order to have him back. This same kind of deal happened with Dani Carvajal.