Giovanni Carnevali, in his first week as Juventus chief executive, has moved quickly to define the club's untouchables — and Juventus defender Andrea Cambiaso is understood to be among the four players Carnevali declared off-limits in his opening meeting with coach Luciano Spalletti.
The significance of that designation is not ceremonial. Juventus are simultaneously pushing to raise around €50m through outgoing transfers, with the new CEO identifying all but one of his predecessor Damien Comolli's signings as available. In that context, being named untouchable is a structural statement: Cambiaso is not a negotiating chip, not a makeweight in a deal for a goalkeeper, not a name to be floated to Premier League clubs. He is a foundation.
The numbers behind that decision are coherent. Across 35 Serie A appearances this season, Cambiaso has contributed three goals and four assists, carrying an average match rating of 6.90. For a defender operating in a Juventus side that sits sixth with 68 points from 37 matches — a team that has drawn 11 times, suggesting a recurring inability to convert dominance into victories — those direct contributions matter. Cambiaso at 26 is not a prospect to be developed; he is a player in the productive core of his career, with an AI overall rating of 72 and a projected ceiling of 76.
Carnevali's broader agenda sharpens the picture further. The new CEO has confirmed Juventus's pursuit of Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, with personal terms already agreed, and has been linked to reinforcements from Liverpool. These are expensive, high-profile acquisitions that require financial discipline elsewhere. Selling Cambiaso — a versatile, consistent performer who can operate across the defensive line — would undermine the structural coherence Carnevali is trying to build, not fund it.
What Spalletti's Juventus need heading into 2025-26 is not more talent scattered across the squad but a reliable skeleton. Cambiaso provides exactly that: a player whose output is steady rather than spectacular, whose positional intelligence reduces the defensive errors that have allowed 32 goals this season, and whose age profile means the club is not managing decline. Carnevali appears to understand this. The four untouchables are, in effect, the walls of the new building — everything else is negotiable.
Cambiaso enters the summer not as a subject of transfer speculation but as a fixed coordinate around which Juventus will construct the next iteration of the squad.