Loaned by Southampton to Inter after falling out of Ralph Hasenuttl’s plans at St Mary’s, Cedric Soares’ move to Italy was doomed from the start.
Just a few days after the transfer was made official, it quickly emerged the Portuguese fullback would only be a ‘stop gap’ for the Italian side, who preferred other options for their long-term plans.
Names such as Matteo Darmian were mentioned, which isn’t exactly inspiring for Cédric, but the search for the right man continues.
As reported by Calciomercato on Thursday, Inter are looking at Stefan Lainer, a relatively long-term target for Napoli, as a potential name for their summer recruitment drive.
The belief is that RB Salzburg would ask for around €15m or so, which would make him relatively affordable.
For the Southampton right-back, however, this isn’t good news, and the Italian website point out that his purchase from Southampton (which would cost around €11m) ‘isn’t in the plans of Marotta or Ausilio at the moment’.
We do enjoy the insertion of ‘at the moment’, just in case Inter can’t find anyone else and fall back on the Portuguese, who appears to be plan Z right about now.
Since moving to Italy, Soares has played just 183 minutes of football spread over five appearances.
