As Serie A fans wait patiently for the March international break to come to a close, transfer rumour mill reports naturally fill the media and impressive Atalanta midfielder, Teun Koopmeiners, has found himself linked with a host of new clubs this coming summer, including Liverpool.
It is not a great surprise really that the 26 year old Dutchman is being linked with a move away, nor that he is strongly linked with a move to the English Premier League, as many would say he rather disappointingly gave a very recent and obvious ‘come and get me’ plea to other clubs.
“I told Atalanta that in the coming summer, I want to move. My fiancée and I are having a great time in Italy, but for some clubs in England I could even bear the rainy days there.”
Fans of the Nerazzurri will obviously be hugely disappointed with his words, and how freely he was prepared to make his thoughts public, but for those in the wider world of football, they can be in no doubt that it was a proper old fashioned ‘come and get me’ attempt, that will either work spectacularly, or leave the 21 capped Netherlands international looking like a bit of a muppet if things do not now go in his favour.
There was obviously a big English overtone to his words, and Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur would appear to be the most likely candidates, and maybe Manchester United, but there will certainly be other suitors for his services and Juventus and Napoli have also already been name checked with having an interest. There are naturally counter reports that his preference is to stay in Italy and that he would be very open to a move to Juventus at the end of the current campaign.
Whichever club ultimately wins out here, it is being reported that Atalanta are believed to want between 50 to 60 million Euros for the goalscoring midfielder, and given he is one of their biggest and highly rated talents, and that a more recent contract extension was agreed until the summer of 2027, they are incredibly unlucky to have much, if any wriggle room when it comes to the lower end of that valuation and given how he went public on this, there are certainly those that feel the club might actually now did in and be determined to strike an even harder bargain.
But this is football, it is not new, and it will not be the last time a story like this crops up. Sometimes it is the player, sometimes it is the club – an outcome is always achieved, but that outcome can often be not what one party wanted it to be.
