While Ademola Lookman talked of ‘broken promises,’ Atalanta have maintain they pledged to sell him abroad this summer, not to Serie A rivals Inter.
The situation has gotten to a breaking point, with the player submitting a formal transfer request, as confirmed by a long statement on his Instagram account.
He protested that the club had promised to let him leave this summer if a suitable offer was made, but that they are now blocking his transfer to Inter “for reasons I do not understand.”
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the version of events given by Atalanta is rather different and would explain why they have been so reticent to accept the Inter proposal.
The promise was made last summer, when Lookman asked to be left out of the squad for the UEFA Super Cup against Real Madrid because of interest from Paris Saint-Germain.
Importantly, the pledge was to let him go for a foreign club if the ambitious and lucrative bid was received.
Atalanta would therefore have been more obliged if Lookman had tried to force his transfer to Arsenal, Chelsea or Paris Saint-Germain, rather than their Serie A competitors Inter.
If they are to accept the move to Inter, it will need to be for the right price, a total of €50m rather than the current offer of €42m plus €3m in bonuses.
