This article is part of Football FanCast's Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news...

According to a new report coming from The Express, Manchester United are interested in signing Merih Demiral as Juventus have told the 21-year-old defender he can leave in January.

What's the word, then?

Demiral is seemingly still out of favour with Maurizio Sarri over in Turin.

The 21-year-old centre-back is behind the likes of Matthijs de Ligt and Leonardo Bonucci in the pecking order, and for that reason has only tallied one game across all competitions in the 2019/20 campaign.

Watch Italian Football Videos With StreamFootball.tv Below

Of course, the Bianconeri are obviously not keeping the youngster in their plans so the door seems wide open for him to go in the New Year, as pointed out by the same source.

But looking at their centre-back situation and the personnel they have at their disposal, permanently cutting ties with such a young talent could be detrimental for Juventus in the long run.

One for the future

There are currently five natural centre-backs in Juventus' squad.

Alongside Demiral and the aforementioned duo, Sarri also has Daniele Rugani and Giorgio Chiellini in the books. But even though they seem quite secure in that area, it has to be noted that both Chiellini and Bonucci are on the wrong end of their 30s and De Ligt, for all his potential, is still inexperienced and adjusting to life in Serie A.

Sooner rather than later, Juventus will need two capable defenders to fill both of the veterans' shoes and they will have to address that problem pretty soon.

But getting rid of Demiral suddenly puts them in need of actually going hunting for someone in the market in the not so distant future, and that could potentially be avoided with a loan deal.

Obviously, he needs game time to develop and if he's not going to get it in Turin, maybe it's not a bad idea to let him go, at least for now.

But not making that separation permanent should be the priority here.

Demiral already has 12 caps with Turkey under his name and has had some experience with both Sporting and Sassuolo in the past, so the quality and mileage are already rising.

Getting some Premier League know-how in his resume can't hurt and then, if they still want to sell him in the future, they can certainly do so.

But at this moment in time, that just doesn't seem like a valid option.