Udinese: ‘Nothing imminent’ for Samardzic sale to Juventus or Napoli

Udinese director Federico Balzaretti warns Juventus, Napoli, Brighton and other clubs that there is ‘nothing imminent’ regarding the sale of Lazar Samardzic, as the situation remains confusing.

The midfielder is expected to leave in the January transfer window for at least €25m and there are suggestions in the media that while Napoli agreed terms with Udinese, Juve have instead approached the player’s father directly to work out personal terms.

Speaking at a press conference today, Udinese director Balzaretti insisted the situation was even more complicated than that.

“Udinese’s priority is to leave the lad as calm as possible and protect him from what are just rumours. We want him focused here 100 per cent,” said Balzaretti.

“After that, there is a parallel process for the club. As we already said in the summer, there is a great deal of interest around the player, because he has already showed his talent and therefore the interest is natural.

“Once again, I have to say there is nothing imminent. We want him to be concentrated preparing for this weekend’s game.

“This is the situation at this moment. There is interest, all the clubs written about in the media did approach us for information on the player, but there is nothing imminent.

“We have many players who are just as strong and appetising to other clubs, so our job is to make sure we are ready for whatever happens.”

Meanwhile, Sport Mediaset had said that Roberto De Zerbi’s Brighton and Hove Albion are also tracking Samardzic, though Sportitalia maintain that was only a vague interest and nothing concrete.

Samardzic had been on the verge of a transfer to Inter over the summer only for it all to fall apart at the final hurdle when he failed to agree personal terms and commissions.