Chelsea, Atalanta finally agree Mario Pašalić transfer — report

For the manyeth time, Mario Pašalić looks set to leave the Chelsea Loan Army and join Atalanta on a permanent basis. Perhaps for the first time, this will actually prove to be true.

Tuttosport (via Sport Witness) claim that Atalanta CEO Luca Percassi and the Emperor’s Hand, Marina Granovskaia have finally struck an agreement over the agreement that was agreed a fair few times in the last two seasons, but this time has been agreed agreeably and for good.

For realsies, yeah?

The fee, as before, is around €15m, which Atalanta have tried to negotiate down several times in the last 18 months. Granovskaia has stood firm, it would seem, although we did grant Atalanta a second season of loan use for Pašalić.

The 25-year-old midfielder has played a key role in the Bergamo-based outfit achieving some historic results in the past two seasons, including a best ever third place in the Serie A in 2018-19 and subsequent Champions League qualification. (It’s rather unfortunate, to say the least, that one of those Champions League matches in February turned out to be a veritable biological COVID-19 bomb for the region.)

But, hopefully better times are ahead for both the region and Pašalić himself, who’s been wanting to make this move permanent for some time.