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Juventus’ second attempt to sign Emi Martinez came and went on Sunday faster than a whole lot of people could have even imagined. One minute the Bianconeri are making a surprise offer for the 33-year-old Argentine when a few days earlier it looked like they had no chance of signing him, and only a few hours later those negotiations were off and the goalkeeper search only continued to roll on.

So, you guessed it … another pivot.

As came out in the moments following reports that things fell apart on the Martinez front, Juventus have shifted focus in their search to sign a new goalkeeper to Tottenham Hotspur outcast Guglielmo Vicario, who has been on the market all summer and hasn’t had much of a market at all after a rough 2025-26 season. But, at this point, Juventus are in desperate need of signing somebody, and now it looks like it will be the player who has essentially been held off in the background as the club negotiated for the likes of Martinez, Alisson Becker and likely others.

So, less than a week before Juve’s 2026-27 campaign kicks off, they’re now talking about a season-long loan deal with an option to buy with Spurs for Vicario, according to IlBianconero.com’s Romeo Agresti, Sky Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio and others in Italy.

Di Marzio says that Vicario’s agent is already in Turin to try and get things closed. Juventus and Tottenham are reportedly set to “enter the final stages” of negotiations, according to Di Marzio.

According to Matteo Moretto, Juventus have submitted an offer for Vicario and the player has already given his approval to a return to Serie A after three years in London following his move from Empoli.

It has certainly been quite the day on the goalkeeper front. The Martinez offer to Aston Villa was a surprise considering, before Saturday’s developments between Zion Suzuki and Paris Saint-Germain and the fall-out from all of that, it looked like everything on that front was pretty much cooked. But, as the day went on, doubts started to grow that something could actually happen — and that was already on top of the skepticism considering just how much of an investment it would be to sign a player like Martinez.

So, deal off and now another pivot.

Vicario is very much not the quality of goalkeeper that Martinez is. He, like Juventus’ starter of the last two years Michele Di Gregorio, has dealt with quite a downfall over the last season. Vicario’s stock is very much not where it was when he was with Empoli — or anywhere close to that — and had Tottenham shelling out €20 million in the summer of 2023.

It is certainly looking like the disappointing conclusion to a position that needed an upgrade months ago. From Alisson to Martinez to Suzuki then back to Martinez and now Vicario. What a summer, I guess.

This time last month, Alisson Becker was Juventus’ clear No. 1 option to take over in goal for Michele Di Gregorio. That ship sailed, which meant Juve were forced to pivot to another option who is currently employed in the Premier League. Door No. 2 brought us to Emi Martinez, who for a couple of weeks looked to be a guy that wanted to come to Turin after speaking with Luciano Spalletti.

But now, as we head into the second half of June, we’re still waiting to see if Juventus and Aston Villa can actually strike some sort of deal for the eccentric Argentine goalkeeper. Left to wonder if there’s a chance that it may ever happen or if Door No. 3 will have to be opened up.

Speaking of Door No. 3 …

According to Sky Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio on Thursday, Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario has a “value that is rising compared to that of Dibu Martinez” as Juventus try to find some sort of solution in goal following a 2025-26 season in which Di Gregorio was prone to mistake … after mistake … after mistake. The thing is, though, Vicario being the third option is not inspiring at all — especially when you consider there’s already been one pivot and that the drop off between the second and third is much greater than the one from the first to the second.

Vicario won’t cost as much as Martinez would, but that is because he isn’t as good as the man who was in goal when Argentina won the World Cup in 2022.

But, this is just another example of how Juventus’ summer mercato is nowhere near simple. There are financial limitations, and new CEO and general manager Giovanni Carnevali is going to have to work with those limitations for the foreseeable future. He is trying to upgrade a squad on a slim budget, and that means the players that Spalletti wants might not actually be the players that Spalletti ends up getting.

Vicario is an OK option in goal, but not one that blows you away by any means. Does he have some clout because he is Gianluigi Donnarumma’s longtime backup for the Italian national team? Sure, but there’s a reason why Tottenham want to sell him this summer following three years in London.

And that’s because they know they can do better, and they have the financial muscle to do so even after barely escaping relegation this past season.

Vicario was previously linked to Serie A champions Inter Milan before they went elsewhere to bring in a new goalkeeper this summer. He has also been linked with a move to Napoli, which also looks to be in the market for a new goalkeeper now that Antonio Conte has come in and had his latest two-year stint at a club that ended in a disappointing final few months.

At this point, though, there feels like a pretty good chance that things don’t work out with Aston Villa despite Martinez wanting to come to Juventus and Carnevali will have to pivot just as Damien Comolli did before he was done as CEO. And if that’s the case, then it’s time to think about how much of an upgrade Juventus would actually be making in goal compared to what they already have.