Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri has admitted Wesley Sneijder would "complete" his midfield as he called for the Dutchman to be signed sooner rather than later.
The former Inter midfielder currently tops Juve's wishlist this winter, and they do not appear to have been put off by claims made by the player's agent that they would have to pay 20 million euros to sign him from Galatasaray.
A deal could yet be reached and Allegri says he hopes negotiations do not drag on for a player he believes would raise the level of his side.
"The sooner new players arrive, the sooner they can integrate," Allegri said at a news conference in Turin. "I've spoken with my club and they know what needs doing. It's not a secret -- we're after an attacking midfielder and also a defender.
"With the former, we intend to raise the quality of the squad further and the latter is necessary to cover a part of the team struck by long-term injuries. This is our strategy for January.
"Let's see if he arrives first. He's still a Galatasaray player. Juve want to improve and to do that, you need to buy players who are at least as good as what you've already got. Sneijder could improve us. He's a player with great technical ability and he's demonstrated that throughout his career.
"He would complete a part of our team which is already very strong, creating a competition for places which I think is important. He would do good to everybody."
Even if he does arrive, Sneijder will not be a Juventus player until after Tuesday night's Derby d'Italia, a game Allegri says his team are seeking to win after ending 2014 with defeat to Napoli in the Supercoppa and a run of just one triumph in their last five games all told.
"We want to and we've got to beat Inter," he said. "We're thinking positive and want to get back to winning ways because we weren't as sparkly in our last games.
"We don't have any time to make mistakes and we've got to be careful with this, our first game of the new year. Just look what happened to Real Madrid and Barcelona."