That is a slightly confusing arrangement from our perspective. The guy has been at Chelsea since 2014, but has never featured for the club in an official game. Instead he’s been on an endless series of loans, culminating in an impressive spell in Bergamo last season.
It was previously thought that they were going to make that deal permanent for €15m this summer, a move that would work out all round. But the following Tweet from Di Marzio disrupted that:
#Atalanta, intesa trovata con il #Chelsea per il rinnovo del prestito di #Pasalichttps://t.co/jdmvambNBe
— Gianluca Di Marzio (@DiMarzio) June 17, 2019
He says that we’re going to allow them another year, with that same option included.
Why we would do that rather than just selling him now isn’t really clear. We would rather have the money, and clear another loan off our books. It’s not like his value is going to improve, with a fixed €15m fee.
Instead, he will just get another year closer to the end of his contract, giving him more power in negotiations.
It’s all rather odd.
