Over January, you’ll probably have noticed that Manchester City were after a centre-back.
Linked with numerous defenders around Europe, Pep Guardiola’s side eventually decided to trigger Aymeric Laporte’s clause at Athletic Bilbao, with the Frenchman moving to the Etihad for €65m.
But, if the Italian press are to be believed, he wasn’t the first choice on their list, with one of their other targets being Inter’s Milan Skriniar.
The Slovakia international, who joined Luciano Spalletti’s side from Sampdoria last summer, was allegedly also the subject of a €65m bid from Manchester City, which the Serie A side turned down.
However, Tuttosport on Monday report that, if such an offer were to be made again, Inter would find it hard to say no, even if they want a little bit more.
Their argument here is that Virgil Van Dijk went to Liverpool for €85m, so, in their eyes, negotiations for Skriniar should start around €80m.
It’s a lot of money for a club who will need to make a €30m profit for FFP reasons come the end of the season, but, then again, you can’t expect to say ‘Sure, we’ll start at a low price’.
In an ideal world, they won’t sell him and put him next to Stefan De Vrij, who would arrive on a free from Lazio at the end of the season.
We’ll have to see if their dream comes true.
