Joshua Zirkzee\u2019s immediate future is starting to take shape, and a move to Juventus now appears highly unlikely.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old has produced useful moments at Manchester United, but he has not fully settled into a defined role. Last season also worked against him, with United playing only 40 matches in all competitions. With no European football and early exits from domestic cups, there simply were not enough minutes to spread across the squad.<\/p>\n
That picture changes in 2026\/27. United are guaranteed at least eight more matches because of the Champions League league phase, with the possibility of several further fixtures beyond that. The demands on the squad will rise sharply, and that alters the context around Zirkzee\u2019s situation.<\/p>\n
Juventus had been linked with interest earlier this week, but their own business makes that pursuit difficult to imagine. The Turin club lost Du\u0161an Vlahovi\u0107 at the end of June after no new contract was agreed with the Serbian striker. Since then, Fabrizio Romano has reported that a deal for Randal Kolo Muani is close to completion. The loan with obligation to buy would eventually cost an estimated $51.4 million (\u20ac45 million), a figure that underlines the club\u2019s finances and the reality that payment is being pushed into the future.<\/p>\n
Juve have also already committed $45.7 million (\u20ac40 million) on Lo\u00efs Openda as part of his loan from RB Leipzig. Openda has since gone on loan to Lyon for $4 million (\u20ac3.5 million) after scoring only once in Serie A last season. Patrick Berger of Sky Sport Germany also reported on Wednesday that a deal for Bayer Leverkusen winger Kerim Alajbegovi\u0107, starting at $37.7 million (\u20ac33 million), is in the \u201cfinal stages.\u201d<\/p>\n
Against that backdrop, there seems little room for another major move.<\/p>\n
The Athletic reported this week that Manchester United are \u201copen to selling\u201d Zirkzee, which is not the same as actively pushing him out. Ajax interest is not expected to develop after two other signings, while two unnamed Premier League clubs have made enquiries. The window closes on Sept. 1.<\/p>\n
Zirkzee has often looked like a player whose role has been misunderstood since arriving at Manchester United. He is a versatile forward, not merely the physical centre-forward some assume. He prefers to drop into build-up play, use his close control, and create from deeper positions. That was evident last Friday, when he scored one and assisted another in the preseason win over Rosenborg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Zirkzee\u2019s United future is clearer, with Juventus now looking unlikely to move after summer spending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1362,1083],"tags":[1836],"class_list":["post-18120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-juventus","category-man-utd","tag-2026-27-premier-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}