By Chris Wright
It’s easy to forget that, before he disassembled Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey‘s lower body at the tail-end of last season, Stoke defender Ryan Shawcross was supposedly being courted by most of the Premier League’s elite – with Manchester United said to have tabled a firm offer for a player who fleetingly made it into the England set-up not so very long ago.
Regardless of his past misdemeanours, Shawcross is the kind of stout, focused defender that many teams would deem a commodity and it just so happens that one of the biggest names in European football are touting his wares – at least they are if the Daily Mirror is to be believed;
“Stoke defender Shawcross is being targeted by struggling Italian giants Juventus. The Serie A side have had a shocking start to the campaign with most of the blame aimed at their back four.
Juve coach Luigi Del Neri is now determined to strengthen his defence in the January window and he is keen on Shawcross.”
I think you can probably file this one under ‘the Mirror are picking teams and players out of their purple velvet tophat again’.