Atalanta’s safari to London this week reads like a modern transfer thriller: Luca Percassi, the club’s quietly relentless president, is in the UK not simply to trade handshakes but to rewrite the club’s attacking blueprint. Reports say Percassi flew into the capital with one eye on Fulham’s Brazilian forward Rodrigo Muniz and another on the increasingly tangled Ademola Lookman saga — a two-headed negotiation that, if pulled off, would redraw the balance between Bergamo, Fulham, and Inter Milan.
Percassi is not the flash-in-the-pan executive who chases headlines. He built Atalanta into a European fixture through surgical deals, a scouting network that favours potential over price tags, and an insistence on fit: players who blossom within Gian Piero Gasperini’s intense, vertical system. That pedigree explains why Muniz is intrigued with Atalanta. The 24-year-old Brazilian’s combination of pace, physicality, and an eye for dramatic, late-game finishes has convinced La Dea that he could be a like-for-like for Mateo Retegui, a striker they allowed to leave and whose absence both stung and simplified the strategy: sign the goals, then move the chess pieces.
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But transfers are rarely binary. Muniz’s pursuit could be the lever that frees Ademola Lookman, La Dea’s mercurial winger, who has made no secret of his desire to leave for Inter Milan. The triangle is classic: Fulham want value for a rising star; Atalanta want a striker who can score in Serie A’s pressure cooker; Inter want Lookman but have tripped over Atalanta’s price. If Percassi can land Muniz in Bergamo, the ripple may clear the way for Lookman’s San Siro move, and that is precisely the negotiation calculus playing out in Percassi’s meetings.
The human element tightens the plot. Percassi’s presence in London signals urgency. He’s not there to flirt with offers; he’s there to negotiate, to persuade, to bridge the negotiating gap between a club that needs a clinical finisher and a Premier League side that rates Muniz highly. Fulham have reportedly rebuffed Atalanta’s opening €40m approach, and discussions appear set to escalate toward the mid-€40m range, money that would reflect Muniz’s Premier League promise and Fulham’s bargaining position. Meanwhile, Lookman’s impatience, which has been linked with refusing to return to Bergamo amid speculation, adds cinematic pressure to the talks.
Beyond fees and faces, this transfer story reveals something about modern club identity. Atalanta’s model has always been about blending shrewd commerce with on-field continuity: buy smart, develop, then sell at a profit, but only when the sporting plan allows. Percassi’s London visit is a practical application of that doctrine: secure a goal-getter, then allow transfer dominoes to fall in a way that strengthens the squad rather than weakens it. It’s an executive’s tightrope, balancing finance, fan expectation, and the manager’s tactical needs, and Percassi’s calm determination is the ropewalker.
For fans, the spectacle is irresistible: a president in a foreign capital negotiating not only a single transfer but the future tone of a season. For the players, it’s about choices: Muniz facing the lure of Serie A, Lookman weighing loyalty against ambition. For the clubs, it’s chess: every piece moved must create opportunities elsewhere. If Percassi returns to Bergamo with a signature and a cleared pathway for Lookman, it will be a masterclass in transactional vision; if not, it will be another episode in this summer’s transfer soap opera. Either way, the next few days in London could echo throughout Serie A.
