Atalanta Not Planning to Sell Lookman Soon After Return | OneFootball

Ademola Lookman made his short seasonal debut against Torino, ending a saga that had started at the beginning of the summer, at least for now.

Per Matteo Moretto (via SOSFanta), Atalanta consider the case closed and plot to keep the attacker for the entire season rather than selling him in January. The star will now be fully at the coach’s disposal. He will need time to be in peak shape after training separately for a couple of months. It could be a while before he’s fit enough to start. In addition, their other weapons, including his heir apparent Kamaldeen Sulemana, have gotten going.

Lookman has been in limbo ever since Inter decided to pull out of the race because they considered his price tag to be too high. Atletico Madrid poked around but never tabled an official offer. A couple of Turkish sides lodged their bids after deadline day in the rest of Europe, but the formulas they proposed didn’t convince Atalanta.

Owner Stephen Pagliuca was reportedly in Bergamo last week and might have helped smooth things over. Still, it doesn’t appear that a new contract is in the cards.

Our Take on Lookman and Atalanta

It remains to be seen whether his camp, which was behind the whole ordeal for the most part, agrees with this stance or will instead act aggressively once the next transfer market window opens. From their standpoint, they messed up when they agreed to his previous long-term deal with no release clauses and modest wages. It doesn’t look like anything major led to reconciliation other than some pressure from the team and the player realizing that being sidelined for three months wouldn’t help his case.