If you were a football agent and your client was looking for a bumper renewal, it would be mighty convenient if Newcastle United turned up with an offer to help pile the pressure on.
That’s why it’s always worth taking claims of offers from the Magpies with a pinch of salt, with agents almost certainly using the club’s name even where there’s no concrete basis to do so.
That brings us to Marcelo Brozovic and his expiring Inter Milan deal, with the situation covered by Gazzetta dello Sport today. With a contract running out at the end of the season, the midfielder will be able to sign a pre-contract agreement with other clubs from January onwards.
Inter Milan clearly want the Croatian to stay, and have been trying their best to please him.
Brozovic started out wanting more than €7m per season, after tax, and Inter’s idea is to give him around €6m. The 29-year-old has received some ‘interesting proposals’, with ‘Newcastle, above all’ in that bracket.
How real the Newcastle offer is would still be in question.