After what felt like an interminable wait, Paulo Dybala’s move to Manchester United collapsed late on Sunday after the Premier League club made it clear they would not give in to the player’s and his entourage’s financial requests.
On top of the big wages, the club reportedly felt the player’s reluctance to move to Old Trafford was not worth taking an expensive risk on, and so the plug was pulled.
While that may please Dybala, who clearly wanted to stay at Juventus, it’s left both United and a certain Romelu Lukaku in the lurch, as the Belgian wants a transfer, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would prefer to not have him around.
The Old Trafford club’s demands of €83m have put off interested sides in the past, including Inter, who remained attentive in case a window of opportunity presented itself, which appears to now be the case.
According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Juventus now feel Antonio Conte’s side are ‘favourites’ to sign Lukaku, as the Serie A champions look around trying to come up with another package that could please Ed Woodward without breaking their own balance.
Inter, down their end, remain relatively ‘cautious’ about it all, with Gazzetta adding ‘they’ve clearly expressed their desire to not increase the €60m + €5m in bonuses offer they made a few weeks ago’.
That isn’t good enough by United standards, and unless there’s a change of heart at Carrington in the next few days, or Inter find some extra money down the back of the sofa, it’s hard to see something happening by the end of August 8th.
However, Corriere dello Sport, down their end, believe there is a chance of Inter increasing their offer, but they haven’t done so yet, at least officially.
A figure of €80m is mentioned, which certainly is close to Ed Woodward’s demands, but until that is placed in front of United’s executive vice-chairman, it means very little.
The rest of the article is mostly comprised of Antonio Conte’s and Beppe Marotta’s recent quotes on the matter, but the Inter manager’s confidence didn’t go unnoticed.
There’s three days left in this window, and despite us waving goodbye to this story, it’s made a (perhaps inevitable) return just 72 hours or so before the deadline.
This is going to be a fun week… (said no one at Sport Witness)
