Reported Everton and Leicester City target Ruslan Malinovskyi is willing to leave Serie A entertainers Atalanta in order to play more regular first-team football, according to Calciomercato.
On paper at least, the numbers look good.
Since the start of 2019/20, Malinovskyi has featured in 47 of Atalanta’s 53 league fixtures. So what on earth does the Ukraine international have to worry about?
It is simple really.
Of those 47 appearances, just 18 have come from the start. In recent weeks, Malinovskyi has fallen even further down the pecking order, behind the ever-improving Matteo Pessina, and it seems unlikely that things will change any time soon.
“To play in central midfield, he must grow,” Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini explained.
Malinovskyi could stay, of course, and fight for his place in one of the most exciting and free-wheeling sides anywhere in European football. But, with the European Championships looming on the horizon, Calciomercato reports that the 27-year-old would prefer a clean break and a fresh start away from Bergamo.
Calciomercato adds that Everton and Leicester are willing to offer the £20 million-rated set-piece specialist just that.
If Malinovskyi is concerned about his lack of starts under Gasperini, it is hard to imagine that the grass could possibly be any greener in England.
Especially when you consider that he would have Abdoulaye Doucoure, James Maddison, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Youri Tielemans for competition at Everton or Leicester respectively.
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