Atalanta want to hold onto Cristian Romero and have not received any formal offer from other teams so far. In any case, €45M would not be enough to purchase the Argentinian defender, who has landed on Manchester United’s radar. The Bergamaschi will consider changing their stance on their young linchpin only for €60M or above, Tuttosport reports.
President Antonio Percassi recently outlined his team’s strategy on the transfer market. He took Duvan Zapata, Luis Muriel, and Ruslan Malinovskyi off the transfer market, while they will consider sizeable bids for their other contributors. The Goddess would like to part ways with just one of their regulars.
Atalanta are not opposed to cashing in on their youngsters, as they have done in the past. However, the financial benefits of the sale of Romero would be significantly inferior compared to those of Dejan Kulusevski and Amad Diallo. The two attackers were home-grown talents, while the Orobici will spend €20M to acquire the defender from Juventus. They have paid a €2M fee for the initial loan, plus they will activate the €16M option to buy and tack on €2M as bonuses for Champions League qualification.
Therefore, the sum would have to be higher to make them budge, also considering that they would have to reinvest the money in two reliable defenders, not just one as they are currently planning. Their preferred target to bolster the back-line is Takehiro Tomiyasu, who has a different skill set than Romero. They are trying to exploit the fact that Bologna are scheduled to finalize the permanent acquisition of Musa Barrow for €14.5M this summer in the negotiation.