It’s amusing how the transfer rumour mill works sometimes.
Having just bought Mohamed Salah from Roma for a club record fee, Jürgen Klopp’s plan was always to play both the Egyptian and last season’s star signing Sadio Mané together in some shape or form.
However, in Italy, mostly because it suits what Luciano Spalletti wants in a recruit, they see it as a competition for one spot, meaning the Senegalese could, potentially, be there for the taking.
Of course, that is extremely, extremely unlikely, but with Inter looking for another quick forward, Sadio Mané fits the bill.
Gazzetta dello Sport on Tuesday explain the Senegal star is one of five players the Serie A side are looking at, with the other options being Julian Brandt, Douglas Costa, Yevhen Konoplyanka and Florian Thauvin.
On paper, bringing Mané is nigh on impossible, yet if they were to sell Ivan Perisic for, let’s say, the €60m they are asking for him, then they would have the money to (we doubt it, still) maybe make Liverpool think twice.
With the other four targets all far more affordable and likelier to leave, you would think Inter would go for them over Mané, but as we saw with their apparent pursuit of Antonio Conte, Inter are dreaming big this summer, and even if it doesn’t work out, they’ll probably give it a go and say ‘we tried’.