Juventus are hellbent on signing Arthur Melo. They've been putting pressure on Barcelona for some time and in recent hours, they've also done it with the player himself, but there's no way. Barcelona are willing to go through with the transfer, even though the data makes it difficult to believe that it would benefit them on the sporting side.
On the other hand, Juventus would be delighted. Firstly, because they'd be signing a 23-year-old with great potential and practically his entire career in front of him. There's time for him to repay them, whether that's on the field of play or in a future sale. Miralem Pjanic, however, is already 30. He's not got that long left at the highest level. Barcelona have already got Ivan Rakitic and Arturo Vidal, 32 and 33 respectively, in their squad, and we can't forget the period of adaptation that any player needs when they move to the Camp Nou. Frenkie de Jong is an example of a player with Barcelona DNA, but he hasn't hit the expected heights in his first season.
Money is another important topic. Arthur earns around three million euros a year after tax while Pjanic is on 7.5 million a year at Juve. Taking into account the tax differences in Italy, Barcelona would be adding 10 million euros to their wage bill if the swap went through - and everyone knows what sort of state the club is in with that at the moment. Arthur's salary, however, isn't a problem for Josep Maria Bartomeu.
Both players perform well going forward, but Arthur is better. This season, they have both scored three and assisted two in their domestic leagues and scored or assisted none in the Champions League, while Arthur has a goal in the Copa del Rey to his name to Pjanic's zero in the Coppa Italia. All that taking into account the fact that the Bosnian has played twice as many minutes as the Brazilian because of injury.
If we go off the two players' market values on Transfermarkt, Arthur's is higher. The only benefit that a swap deal with mean for Barcelona is in their accounts. Doing a transfer like this would allow the club to balance their books in a year where they expect to make big losses. Sporting-wise, no one understands it.
Everything that's negative to Barcelona is positive for Juve. They would make a marquee signing, rejuvenating their squad, Maurizio Sarri would be delighted with the options in front of him (he doesn't have a great relationship with Pjanic) and it would provide a bit of balance. It's clear who wins in this swap deal.