Bournemouth could land their next Dean Huijsen with genius £26m summer deal

Last year, Bournemouth pulled off one of the most impressive coups of the 2024 summer transfer window - although it would be a few months before it became apparent that the Cherries had done some remarkable business in signing young Juventus defender Dean Huijsen.

It’s looking likely that the 20-year-old will be on his way already in the coming months, with a number of elite teams – most prominently Real Madrid – expected to make bids. Bournemouth will turn a tidy profit on their freshly-minted Spain international, and Huijsen will continue a career curve which seems to be heading upwards at speed.

By why should signing Huijsen prove to be a one-off? A new report from Italy suggests that the Andoni Iraola’s side could be trying to repeat the trick – with another gifted Juventus defender in their sights as they look to strengthen this summer…

Could Nicolò Savona be Bournemouth’s next rising star?

A story from Italian outlet Tuttosport, translated and contextualised by Sport Witness on Monday morning, suggests that Bournemouth have emerged as a contender to sign 22-year-old right-back Nicolò Savona, who broke into the Juventus first team this season and has become something of a regular presence ever since.

Savona is a little further along in is Juventus career than Huijsen was when the Amsterdam-born defender left, but while the towering centre-back had only made one senior appearance for the Old Lady (compared to 33 this season for Savona), he had already started to prove his quality on loan with AS Roma.

In short, Savona is at broadly the same point in his career that Huijsen was a year ago, even if he is a few years older, and may face a choice this summer – continue battling for a starting spot in Turin, or move abroad in the hope and expectation of regular minutes.

Juventus, for their part, don’t seem especially keen to sell and Savona is under contract until 2029 have penned a new deal last summer, before he made his first-team debut. Sport Witness, however, suggest that they would part ways with the young full-back for a “sensational offer”, which could be in the region of €25-30m (£21.5-26m).

That’s more than Bournemouth forked out for Huijsen last summer (he set the Cherries back £15.6m including add-ons) but hardly out of their budget. The south coast side aren’t the only team alleged to be interested, either, with Bayer Leverkusen apparently eyeing Savona as a potential replacement for Jeremie Frimpong, who is in turn widely expected to be Trent Alexander-Arnold’s replacement at Liverpool.

In essence, while Juventus may not be in a rush to sell Savona, he isn’t such an important player that he doesn’t have a relatively reasonable price tag, and there is enough interest in the player to make a move eminently plausible. But is he the kind of player that Bournemouth need as they look to press forward towards the European placings next season?

Why Savona could be the ideal replacement for Dean Huijsen

The curious thing about the link with Leverkusen is that Savona could scarcely be more different from Frimpong in terms of his playing style. Where the Dutchman is a flying wing-back who spends most of his time in the opposing third, Savona is a much more traditional, defensive sort of player.

He may have scored two goals for Juventus this season – a looping header against Verona from the back post and a nicely-placed left-footed finish against Udinese which hinted at his ability to work the ball from both feet – but he only has one assist and rarely looks to hit the byline and get crosses in.

That could be argued as being a shame, as Savona has a good, accurate cross on him from deeper areas (his completion rate of 33% is comfortably above the Premier League average), but he isn’t remarkably quick and prefers to look for ways to recycle possession and look for passes inside when he gets into more advanced areas.

In short, he’s about as far from Frimpong as one could imagine while playing what is, nominally, the same position on the pitch – and if Leverkusen are interested, one wonders if they don’t see Savona as a centre-half, where he had played for Juventus’ Next Gen youth team at times.

At just under 6’4”, Savona is a towering aerial presence with a well-rounded physique who often looms large over the nimble wingers he finds himself marking and knows how to use his size advantage to win in one-on-one situations. A combination of that capacity to use his strength and make tackles without giving away too many fouls makes him a fine defender against teams who look to run the ball into the area.

In many ways, his combination of size, defensive judgement and economic usage of the ball makes him look much more like a centre-half playing out of position on the right than a marauding full-back.

Still, he has created more chances, completed more passes and made more successful dribbles in the opposing half this season than Adam Smith, so perhaps Bournemouth do see him as a player who could offer some extra strength on the right side of defence, or as a player who could spread his wings more going forward.

Or perhaps they see him as a potential direct replacement for Huijsen, should the Spaniard leave for Real or some other big side this summer. Certainly, Savona has the presence and natural gifts to be a fine addition to the Bournemouth back line, and could easily be an upgrade on Smith and a player who can compete for minutes in the middle with Illia Zabarnyi and Marcos Senesi at the same time.

Either way, Bournemouth have developed a habit of identifying and improving young talent in recent years and if they do make a move to sign Savona, they will have a clear path forward in mind for the Italian. All that remains to be seen is whether they do try to force Juventus to sell a talented young player this summer – and then whether Savona can follow the path laid out by Huijsen’s superb season.