Breaking - Palestra agreement with Chelsea, who blow Inter away at €55m plus bonus

In a shock turnaround, Italian sources claim Marco Palestra has agreed to join Chelsea, who blew Inter away with more than double their wage offer and €55m plus bonuses to Atalanta.

The player had seemingly been on the verge of making his move to San Siro this summer after an impressive spell on loan with Cagliari.

Atalanta were ready to accept the terms of €45m plus €5m in bonuses, and they were down to the details for how those add-ons and clauses would be worked out.

Inter also presented personal terms to the player today, reportedly worth €2.5m per season.

However, Chelsea suddenly dived in after an order from coach Xavi Alonso to get the Italy international in his squad, and they really did pull out all the stops.

Multiple sources state their salary offer was more than double that of Inter, going from €5m for Sky Sport Italia to €6m per season according to La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Along with how determined they were to sign him, it proved enough to sway Palestra, who had until now seemed determined to take the next step of his career within Serie A at Inter.

They also comfortably swept Inter aside in terms of the transfer fee, offering €55m plus €5m in bonuses, according to Sky Sport Italia and Sportitalia.

That is €10m more than the proposal from the Nerazzurri, yet Atalanta were still prepared to let Palestra make the final decision.

Multiple reports this evening state that Inter are increasingly pessimistic, because they simply cannot compete with the finances of Chelsea.