Wednesday’s edition of Gazzetta dello Sport had an Ivan Perisic article which prompted scrunched faces at Sport Witness.
It was claimed Manchester United and Atletico Madrid were keen on the Inter player, again, and a January transfer was possible with Perisic himself keen to leave Serie A behind him.
Given United interest was a Jose Mourinho thing, it didn’t make a great deal of sense. And given Atletico Madrid have been searching around for things to cash in just to afford the Alvaro Morata loan, that didn’t make sense either.
So it was for the good of the story when Arsenal were brought in, it freshened things up a bit. Yet there are aspects to the new slant which make a transfer sound difficult.
In their Sunday edition, Gazzetta say Arsenal have contacted Perisic’s agent, Fali Ramadani, ‘in recent days’ to make it clear they’d be willing to sign the Croatian on loan with a purchase option in the summer.
A deal would have to be quick, with the window closing on Thursday.
For Inter ‘the door is open’ for an exit, but it’s explained Arsenal have been sent a message: A transfer will cost €35m.
A loan with just a purchase option is ‘no good’ for Inter, and the only way they’d consider a temporary deal is if ‘a loan is so burdensome as to make the ransom automatic in June’.
There has to be a commitment to buy.
Despite being edged out of Inter’s squad and training separately at the end of the week, it’s insisted that isn’t because an agreement is close with any club.
