My Ultimate Gacha System-Chapter 322 - 309: Option One or Option Two

Atalanta Headquarters — Gewiss Offices Bergamo 4:15 PM

The boardroom on the third floor had a long table that seated twelve and a screen mounted on the far wall that currently showed a financial projection document in landscape format, though nobody at the table was looking at it because the conversation had moved past numbers and into the part where numbers meant something.

Antonio Percassi sat at the head of the table with his jacket still on and his hands folded in front of him, while Tony D’Amico was to his left with a folder open in front of him that he’d already been through twice and a pen he kept clicking without writing anything. The club’s chief financial officer, Riccardo Marini, sat to Percassi’s right with a printed spreadsheet in front of him and the patient expression of someone who’d done this before and understood that financial conversations in football rarely stayed financial for long.

The screen behind Marini showed a column chart with two scenarios side by side, each representing a different summer for the club. The figures were clear enough that nobody needed explaining.

Percassi looked at the screen for a moment and then at D’Amico. "Walk me through option two again," he said. "Properly."

D’Amico set down the pen. "New five-year contract," he said. "Current wages are fifteen thousand monthly base plus match and goal bonuses — after last night that structure is completely unsustainable relative to market and relative to what he’s produced. A new deal would need to be somewhere between sixty and eighty thousand monthly, possibly with escalators tied to appearances. We raise the release clause to one hundred million. He stays for the twenty-three-twenty-four season with Champions League football, and we reassess his value and our situation twelve months from now."

"And in twelve months?" Percassi said.

"In twelve months his value is either the same or higher," D’Amico said. "If he performs at this level in the Champions League, which based on everything we’ve seen is realistic, we could be looking at one hundred to one hundred and twenty by next summer."

"Or lower," Marini said, and his voice was neutral because he wasn’t pessimistic by nature but the numbers required saying it. "If he gets injured, if form dips, if the team underperforms in Europe — the market moves both ways. Last night was as good as it gets in terms of public perception. We are literally at the ceiling."

D’Amico nodded once because he knew Marini wasn’t wrong. "That’s option one’s argument," he said. "Sell now. Seventy minimum, I’d push for eighty in any serious negotiation. That money solves the FFP position we’re carrying from the stadium development — Riccardo, you want to put a number on that?"

Marini turned one page of his spreadsheet. "The outstanding FFP exposure is approximately thirty-one million euros across the two-year assessment window," he said. "Seventy million in transfer income this summer reduces that to zero, funds three quality signings in the eight-to-fifteen million range, and still leaves operational cash for wage structure improvement across the squad. Option one is the safer financial choice. There is no ambiguity on that."

Percassi was quiet for a moment while both men waited. When he spoke his tone was thoughtful rather than resistant. "What message does it send?" he said, and the question was addressed to both of them. "We win the Coppa Italia for the first time in sixty years. The boy scores a hat-trick in the final. He’s on the front page of every sports paper in Europe this morning. And in June we sell him." He paused. "To our fans. To the squad. What does that say?"

D’Amico understood the question and didn’t dismiss it. "It says the club is run responsibly," he said. "It says when exceptional value is created we don’t hold it sentimentally. Every club at this level has sold players who deserved to stay — Dortmund sold Lewandowski, sold Hummels, sold Dembélé. It’s how they sustain themselves."

"We’re not Dortmund," Percassi said, and the line wasn’t defensive, just factual.

"We’re trying to become something that can compete at that level," D’Amico said, and the slight edge that came into his voice was professional rather than emotional. "And that requires making these decisions when the leverage is in our favour. His release clause is forty-five million. If we don’t extend him and a club triggers it in 2025, we walk away with forty-five. We’re having this conversation because last night changed his worth by thirty million euros overnight. That window won’t stay open."

Percassi turned to Marini. "What does Gasperini think?" 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Marini looked mildly uncomfortable being put in the position of speaking for the coach. "I haven’t spoken to him directly," he said, "but D’Amico has." He looked across the table.

D’Amico picked his pen back up. "Gasperini wants to keep him," he said. "That’s not complicated — any coach wants to keep a player performing at that level. He understands the financial picture, he’s not naive about it, but if you ask him directly what he wants the answer is that Walter stays." He paused. "He also said — and this is Gasperini so it was about three words total — that losing him immediately after winning something damages the culture in ways that are hard to measure."

Percassi absorbed that. "He’s right," he said.

"He’s right," D’Amico agreed, and his tone was not arguing with it. "And it still might be the correct decision financially."

The room was quiet for a moment with the projections glowing on the screen behind them and the afternoon light coming in flat through the tinted windows that looked out over the car park and the city beyond.

"We’re not deciding today," Percassi said, and the finality in it was the gentle kind that meant the meeting was close to ending. "But we need a position before clubs start making formal approaches, which based on this morning’s news cycle will be within the next week." He looked at D’Amico. "Talk to Benetti before the weekend. Nothing formal. Exploratory — is there appetite for a contract extension conversation? What’s his client’s thinking? You don’t need to tip our hand, just take the temperature."

D’Amico nodded. "I’ll call him tomorrow."

"Do it carefully," Percassi said. "If word gets out that we’re approaching his agent about an extension, clubs will read that as us preparing to sell and they’ll accelerate. Keep it quiet."

"Understood," D’Amico said.

"What’s the window?" Marini asked, and the question was practical — he was asking when the decision could no longer be deferred.

"June," Percassi said. "We have until the window opens in June before this becomes a public negotiation and we lose the ability to control the narrative." He looked at both of them. "That’s six weeks. Use them correctly."

He stood and the meeting was done, and D’Amico closed his folder while Marini turned off the projector, and the boardroom returned to its normal condition of being a large quiet room with a view of Bergamo and a table nobody sat at except when something had to be decided.