Gazzetta dello Sport have given a break down of all the factors that counter Inter’s objectives in the winter mercato. Everything can be traced back to Inter’s Financial Fair Play agreement with UEFA.

For instance, with Ramires, everything was in place for him to say farewell to Fabio Capello into the embrace of Luciano Spalletti, but UEFA completely blocked it. “The committee that oversees the agreement, deemed it to be potentially unfair due to the fact that Jiangsu are effectively directly aiding their sister club Inter, since they are both owned by the same people (Suning).”

A bigger problem for Inter is that during the winter mercato, their vital strategy of signing players on “loan with obligation to buy” cannot be used in order to avoid the restrictions set in place by UEFA.

In short, their is very little room for Sabatini and Ausilio to work, not forgetting the domestic political blockades Suning face in China. The same applies to Javier Pastore given that, according to UEFA, Inter are not allowed to allocate more than 60% of its turnover to player wages. This is easier to understand when you consider Pastore would be demanding 7 million euros per season, which is almost unreachable for the Nerazzurri unless certain conditions change.