Chelsea will further boost an already healthy transfer budget this summer thanks to the imminent permanent sale of Croatian midfielder Mario Pasalic - a player most fans could be forgiven is still contracted to the Stamford Bridge club.
Pasalic joined Chelsea in 2013 from Hajduk Split but has never played a first-team game, instead forming part of the Blues’ infamous ‘loan army’ of players dotted at clubs all over Europe.
During his time as a Chelsea player, Pasalic has been on loan at Elche, Monaco, Milan and Spartak Moscow, before his current spell at Atalanta since 2018.
In Bergamo, he has been a key member of the squad that has pushed Atalanta up a level into the Champions League and the Serie A side have confirmed they wish to exercise their option to buy.
“We’re going to buy Mario Pasalic on a permanent deal from Chelsea. We want to use the buy option,” Atalanta sporting director Giovanni Sartori told Sky Italia this week.
That option is worth a reported €15m (£13.5m), which will be a healthy addition and welcome to Chelsea’s finances this summer.
Where most clubs will struggle transfer market over the coming weeks and months, Chelsea are in a relatively unique position. Spending last summer was limited to just the £40m or so it cost to make Mateo Kovacic’s loan from Real Madrid permanent because of a transfer ban, while the club raised in excess of £140m from a raft of sales that included Eden Hazard and David Luiz, as well as fringe players like Ola Aina, Tomas Kalas, Kenneth Omeruo and Kasey Palmer.
Chelsea raised more money in January by selling Michael Hector and Tariq Lamptey for a few million apiece, while another £48.5m is expected to come in this summer when Alvaro Morata’s loan at Atletico Madrid is made into a permanent deal, an agreement that was confirmed last year.
All that income on top of any existing annual transfer budget is allowing Chelsea to pay for big deals like Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner, who will join this summer for a combined £90m, while the club may also have enough scope to chase Bayer Leverkusen Kai Havertz at a time when others cannot.
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Source : 90min