Juventus 'have not started any talk' with Barcelona to sign Miralem Pjanic as their priority midfield target is Manuel Locatelli, according to Fabrizio Romano.
While Juve are set for a new meeting with Sassuolo over the Italy international, Pjanic recently rejected Barca's offer to leave the club by mutual consent, the arguably most reliable transfer insider confirms.
The Bosnian's move from Juventus cost the Catalans €60m last summer. Pjanic only played a total of 1.295 minutes across all competitions in his maiden season at Camp Nou.
Now, Barca need to somehow offload the 31-year-old, who earns around €18m per year at Camp Nou, to reduce their wage bill and thus be able to register Lionel Messi's new contract.
RELATED NEWS
Pjanic and Umtiti reject Barca's contract termination offers, exits still not ruled out (reliability: 5 stars)
Miralem Pjanic and Samuel Umtiti have rejected Barcelona's offers to terminate their contracts, according to Marca's reliable Luis Rojo.
Last week, the club approached the pair in open letters, explaining that "given the current financial situation of the club and the salary limit, we're giving the player the option to terminate their contract with the club and to leave".
As Rojo puts it, both players are still expected to leave the Catalans this summer, more likely on loan than permanently.
Umtiti and Pjanic are paid around €16m and €18m respectively and thus if Barca manage to loan them out, it'll reduce the club's wage bill by €35 for the forthcoming season - something the Blaugrana have to do to register Lionel Messi's new contract in compliance with La Liga's wage limit.
As a reminder, the Frenchman and the Bosnian are tied with Barca until 2023 and 2024 respectively.
Barca offered to release Umtiti and Pjanic for free, players yet to accept (reliability: 5 stars)
The day that Barcelona terminated the contract of Matheus Fernandes, the club also offered Samuel Umtiti and Miralem Pjanic to release them for free by mutual consent, Mundo Deportivo's reliable Fernando Polo reports. Terminating their contracts would be too costly.
It's said that Umtiti refused the offer. His intention is to stay at Camp Nou and convince Ronald Koeman that he's worthy of a place in the squad.
Pjanic, meanwhile, is taking his time to respond. Before he would accept leaving for free, the midfielder wants to explore his options and see whether he can leave the normal way, the report claims.
Fernando Polo adds that Barca want to get the two players off their wage bill as the Catalans exceed the salary cap. This would also help with extending Leo Messi's contract. Besides, Ronald Koeman doesn't want to start the pre-season with players he doesn't count on for the next season.
If Sam and Miralem agree to terminate contracts by mutual consent, they won't get compensated by Blaugrana. But they would be able to ask for a signing bonus from their new clubs since they would be joining as free agents. So far, Umtiti has attracted the interest of Lyon and Marseille while Inter Milan, Juventus and PSG are said to be monitoring Pjanic's situation.
