Defenders Now For Ranieri, Diego In June – Report Juventus are set to only use this month’s transfer window to buy some defenders, and will spend the

The Bianconeri are embarrassingly short of numbers in defence as Giorgio Chiellini has been ruled out for between five and six weeks, Jonathan Zebina is still at least two weeks from a comeback, while Jorge Andrade is a long-term casualty.


Despite their lack of numbers in defence, Alessio Secco and the Juve transfer directors hastily decided to send Domenico Criscito on loan to Genoa until the end of the season.


This means that the Old Lady now only have Nicola Legrottaglie and Jean-Alain Boumsong as available, natural centre backs.


Juve boss Claudio Ranieri is desperate to sign one, if not two stoppers this January, and the first player likely to join is Aston Villa’s Olof Mellberg.


The 30-year-old Swedish international’s contract runs out at the end of the season, and it is strongly believed that Juve have already agreed a deal to sign him on a ‘Bosman’.


However according to this morning’s Gazzetta dello Sport, the Bianconeri will offer Villa £700,000 so that the player can join right away.


Fast forward to this summer, and Ranieri is determined to bring to the club a guaranteed world-class midfielder.


The current favourite is Brazilian playmaker Diego. His club Werder Bremen value him at a monstrous €30m, however it seems the Tinkerman would rather splash out this kind of money, than risk a repeat of last summer’s disastrous transfer campaign when Tiago Mendes and Sergio Almiron were bought for a combined €22m.