Atalanta confirm loan signing of Juventus' Merih Demiral

Atalanta have confirmed the arrival of centre-back Merih Demiral from Juventus on a season-long loan.

La Dea are preparing to offload Cristian Romero to Tottenham but put a pin in the deal until they found a replacement, with Demiral quickly identified as their preferred target.

Talks between the two Italian sides were fairly straightforward and Atalanta have now confirmed on their official website that Demiral has joined on loan with an option to buy, although there is no mention of the fee involved.

With Demiral now in through the door, Atalanta can begin their plan to sell Romero. First, they had to actually trigger their option to sign him, which Juventus note they did shortly before the announcement of the Demiral deal.

Atalanta have parted with €16m (£13.5m) to sign Romero and will pay that fee over three seasons - something they won't struggle with as they are about to send the Argentine to Spurs for a cool £43m.

Demiral is entering his third season in Italy, having initially joined Sassuolo on loan from Turkish side Alanyaspor back in January 2019.

A move to Juventus followed six months later, but a combination of strict competition and a nasty ACL injury restricted him to just eight appearances in all competitions in his debut campaign at the Allianz Stadium.

2020/21 was hardly much better for Demiral. He began the season as a starter, but a muscle injury suffered in November saw him tumble down the pecking order and he ended the campaign with ten Serie A starts to his name.

Demiral will hope to enjoy the same level of success at Atalanta as Romero, who was named Serie A's best young defender last season and is on track to become the second most expensive signing in Spurs history.

Spurs director Fabio Paratici has been pushing to sign Romero for a few weeks now, and with Demiral now finally an Atalanta player, it looks like he's going to be getting his wish fairly soon.