It makes for odd reading, really. Looking at a table of which Serie A side has spent the most money this summer, Juventus lead the way with roughly €118m spent.

Next up is Como with €104m, followed by Napoli with a shade under €90m.

Now, the 36-time champions leading the way in terms of spending power isn’t that unusual given that it’s, well, Juventus. Yet the caveat to that is this: Juve have only signed two new players.

So where does the €118m figure come from? It’s a legacy of the Cristiano Giuntoli era, when the-now-former sporting director went on a massive spending spree a year ago.

The money spent on the likes of Douglas Luiz, Teun Koopmeiners, Nico Gionzalez, Michele Di Gregorio and Lloyd Kelly came out of this summer’s budget. The consequence being that it now leaves Juve struggling to sign players ahead of next season.

While Francisco Conceicao’s loan deal has been turned into a permanent transfer, only Jonathan David, signed from Lille on a free transfer, and Joao Mario, signed from Porto for €15m, can be considered ‘new’.

The inability to offload some of those costly flops means new general manager Damien Comolli and the recently-hired sporting director Francois Modesto have been restricted in the market. 

Luiz, who’s opening season in Turin was disastrous, to put it politely, is openly being shopped around by the club. Yet given his struggles, prospective teams appear prepared to only take him on a loan deal.

Nico Gonzalez, another flop, has reported interest in Saudi Arabia, but as of yet no official bids have been incoming. Fabio Miretti, who spent last season on loan at Genoa, is of interest to Napoli, while Kelly has suitors back in the Premier League.

Yet the biggest obstacle to Juve’s market plans has been Dusan Vlahovic. The Serb, no longer in Igor Tudor nor the club’s plans, has been reluctant to leave Turin and his cushy €12m-per-season contract.

Vlahovic has a year left to run on his current deal and is seemingly intent on refusing all options, unless a fellow European heavyweight comes calling. Yet considering his form for the past three years, his currency is low.

While Juve eventually agreed a deal with Porto to sign Conceicao permanently, things with Paris Saint-Germain have been a little trickier for Randal Kolo Muani.

Pleased with his performances leading the line in the second half of last season, Juve are trying to bring the Frenchman back to Turin, requesting another loan deal. PSG want a permanent transfer. A breakthrough does now appear to have been made however.

There is still work to be done though on another forward, this in an outgoing capacity, with Vlahovic still at the club. His confidence appears at rock bottom, evidenced by his head-scratching shot in the pre-season friendly win over Borussia Dortmund that made the rounds on social media.

If Vlahovic and Luiz are now surplus to requirements, Koopmeiners still has a future. 

The club’s biggest summer signing a year ago at a colossal €60m, the Dutchman struggled to adjust to life in the big time as a result of poor physical fitness owing to an injury picked up for The Netherlands just before Euro 2024.

Koopmeiners never got fully up to speed and his performances through his debut campaign in Turin could only be best described as insipid. Many jokingly believed Juve had bought a different Koopmeiners.

The surging runs and goals of his final season in Bergamo dried up, and at times resembled a player who’d won a competition to play for Italy’s biggest side.

In the Dutchman’s defence, former manager Thiago Motta had a maddening tendency to play him out of position, as an attacking midfielder and often with his back to goal.

Tudor has rectified that, utilising Koopmeiners in a more natural position in central midfield in pre-season. In many respects he’ll be like a new signing. “I feel indebted to Juve,” he said. 

Another ‘new’ signing will be Bremer. The Brazilian’s season-ending injury against RB Leipzig in the Champions League last October represented a watershed moment.

Even though Juve won the game in eastern Germany, their defensive solidity evaporated without the former Torino man. As clean sheets became less frequent, confidence in Thiago Motta slowly dwindled. 

Now back to full fitness, Bremer will be at the heart of the defence once more. 

Yet the feeling is that more is needed if Juve and Tudor are to seriously compete for the title. 

Another forward is needed, particularly with Vlahovic on the outs and in dire need of new surroundings, while a central defender is a priority with Kelly hardly the picture of reliability in his opening 19 games in black-and-white.

Moreover, there’s of lack of credible options in attack should Conceicao or rising star Kenan Yildiz suffer injury.

Yet Juve’s progress on the market is gridlocked due to the costly failures made by Giuntoli a year ago. The club has to sell before it can buy, and as any Bianconeri fan knows, Juve aren’t particularly good at moving unwanted talent on.

As it stands, it’s hard to make the claim they are potential title contenders, but with Atalanta and Inter stagnating or making minimal transfer movements and AC Milan and Roma great unknowns, Juve could be Napoli’s main contenders by default.

Of course, much can change between now and the end of the summer mercato. Chess pieces could be moved around, players signed in sheer desperation and Juve may get the capital needed for their Kolo Muani outlay and to sign a defender.

Should that happen, then anything is possible. As Napoli showed last season, you don’t need the best squad in the league to win it. 

But as of now, things are a little too quiet on the transfer front.