Inter Milan are hoping to arrange a swap loan deal for Christian Eriksen in January and Arsenal’s Granit Xhaka is one player they are looking at.
That’s according to Tuttosport, who say that the Dane is at a crossroads at the club less than a year after joining.
He arrived in Italy from Tottenham last January but has struggled to establish himself under Antonio Conte, who has regularly left him out of his side.
It has been clear for some time that the Italian simply does not fancy the midfielder and now he has two options in January, either leave on loan or permanently.
He would prefer to leave on a permanent basis, either as part of an exchange or sold for a certain price; Inter would like €30m having spent €27m to sign him at the beginning of the year.
However, they know that it will be difficult to find clubs willing to ‘put up significant money’ for the Dane and so have sanctioned a loan move to ensure they don’t see their ‘capital depreciated’.
With that in mind, the best option would be a loan deal, or even better an exchange for a player that would ‘more functional’ to Conte’s game.
A defensive midfielder is at the top of the list of his requirements, and the ‘main profiles’ the club are looking are Paredes at PSG, Tolisso at Bayern Munich and Xhaka at Arsenal.
Whether any of those clubs would interested in such an arrangement isn’t mentioned, but it seems Inter are keen to explore the idea nonetheless.
Eriksen, for his part, isn’t all that keen on a loan as he doesn’t want to be ‘sorted like a parcel’ unless he is guaranteed a return under a new coach in July.
He is also likely to be a little hesitant about a move to Arsenal given his ties to Tottenham, but stranger things have happened and perhaps the opportunity of regular playing time will sway his thinking.
