Inter have decided to make the signing of Manchester United’s Armenian international attacker Henrikh Mkhitaryan the club’s top priority when the transfer window reconvenes in January according to a report in Rome based newspaper Corriere dello Sport.
According to the report, Inter cannot spend any money on any players this January unless selling a player first in order to not violate the settlement agreement with UEFA whilst also having made it abundantly clear that they are not willing to even listen to offers for Ivan Perisic, Milan Skriniar and Mauro Icardi. Therefore, the only player in the squad that has some resale value is Portuguese international Joao Mario who has fallen down the pecking order and is worried that he will miss his place in the Portuguese national team squad that travels to Russia next summer for the FIFA World Cup.
Paris Saint-Germain have shown a strong interest in Joao Mario, but as Corriere dello Sport reports, the Ligue 1 giants are more interested in a player exchnage deal where Argentinian playmaker Javier Pastore goes in the opposite direction. The problem with that, reportedly, is that Luciano Spalletti does not consider the former Palermo player to have the characteristics he is looking for in a player in that position, something Mkhitaryan Spalletti thinks he has. Mkhitaryan himself has already given a green light to the transfer as he wants to play more and his relationship with former Inter manager has deteriorated if reports concerning a training ground bust up between the two are to be believed.
Manchester United have been very hesitant, according to Corriere dello Sport, to accept Joao Mario into their fold as a replacement for Mkhitaryan but this could be a negotiating tactic by the Red Devils to gain the upper hand in the negotiations.
Jiangsu Suning FC’s Brazilian midfielder Ramires is still very much a possibility but the negotiations there have not taken off as the owner of both clubs, Suning, to not wish to intervene to make it seem that they are favoring Inter over Jiangsu according to Corriere dello Sport.
