Despite pleas by the CEO and coach of Atalanta Ademola Lookman is sticking to his decision to leave the club for French Ligue 1 giants PSG, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Lookman handed in a transfer request following an agreement with PSG and he was subsequently left out of the team that started the new Serie A season on a high with a 4-0 thrashing of Lecce yesterday.
Prior to the game CEO Luca Percassi “We are very relaxed because our idea, shared by coach, club and owners, was for the first time in our history not to let these important players go. We as a club have always respected our commitments and we cannot wait for this transfer window to close, as it reserved a few ugly surprises too, like Gianluca Scamacca’s injury.
“All players belong to Atalanta and the club will decide what to do for the good of this team.”
After the game yesterday head coach Gian Piero Gasperini voiced his dissatisfaction with the uncertainty surrounding the future of the 26 year old Nigerian, who fired the team to Europa League glory with a hattrick in the 3-0 final win over Bayer Leverkusen.
“In all honesty, nobody expected to find ourselves in this situation. At this moment, I am having to take it one day at a time. I had a few thoughts after the Super Cup, but then we ran into all these difficulties, including Scamacca’s injury.
“I don’t know what will happen over the remaining 10 days of the transfer window. My job is to assemble the best squad possible, to see with the club what could be useful to add.
“Clearly, we’ll not have a defined squad until August 31″, he concluded.
Despite their plea for understanding Lookman from what we gathered is adamant that he wants to join PSG and has already started house hunting in the city. He sees the opportunity as a chance to have a crack with a top team considering the fact that he is nearing his peak years, and coming off what was his best season.
He feels such opportunity won’t come twice and wants to make the best of the one he had now. Hence his representative have pleaded with the Italian side to lower their demand of €40m.
Daniel Martins
