Atalanta coach Ivan Juric says that forward Ademola Lookman was “completely straight with me” about his desire to join Inter Milan.
Juric spoke to L’Eco di Bergamo, via FCInterNews, regarding the 27-year-old’s transfer request.
Ademola Lookman has done everything he can to join Inter Milan this summer.
The former Leicester City and Fulham forward has had an agreement with the Nerazzurri for weeks.
And Inter, for their part, have made two offers to Atalanta. La Dea have turned both of them down, however.
This prompted Lookman to hand in a transfer request and make a public statement demanding the move. The Nigerian international claimed that Atalanta had promised him a move this summer.
Lookman had already scrubbed all traces of his current employers from his social media accounts a couple days prior.
Atalanta Coach Ivan Juric: “Ademola Lookman Was Completely Straight With Me” Over Inter Request
Atalanta still have not relented, however. The Bergamo club have reportedly sandbagged Inter in negotiations, not even making a counteroffer.
And in the meantime, La Dea prefer to sell Lookman to a team outside of Serie A.
Behind the scenes, Atalanta coach Ivan Juric said of Lookman that “he was completely straight with me.”
“He explained his thinking,” the coach continued.
Then, Juric noted that “we’ve lost players who gave us 80-90% of our goals last season.”
The coach admitted that “I don’t think anyone will come in who can match Retegui or Lookman’s performances in one fell swoop.”
“But I think we need to strengthen intelligently. Expand our options.”
At the end of the day Lookman has the right to choose who he wish to play football with he was promised very publicly that he would be sold then Atalanta decided not to comply to that agreement claiming that they never said they would not sell to a direct rival. The situation seems will end up in court and Lookman will eventually terminate his contract. Atalanta were playing everyone around since Inter are not stupid enough to blindly submit an official offer so it’s Atalanta who decided to play games and purposely hurt the player. If they were not interested in selling him to Inter why not make it clear early on. A motivated player like Lookman will defenitley be a great addition to Inter while Atalanta will start struggling not get relegated and no decent player would want to join them considering how they treat their top players
Atalanta should have let Lookman join Inter. The price Inter offered was reasonable considering his age and peak performance. Holding him back would have been foolish. A player who has lost his happiness at the club can damage the dressing room. Ivan Juric realized this by hinting at Atalanta to give in and let him go.
Lookman is worth about 60-70 mln in the mercato. 40 mln is too little, and Atalanta do not have any reason why to give their star player for a bargain price to a rival.
you’re delusional. He’s worth 35mln max.