Luciano Spalletti has heaped further praise on Lautaro Martinez following Saturday’s pre-season victory over Lyon, describing the forward as ‘an important player’.

Martinez scored the Nerazzurri’s winning goal in their 1-0 success over the Ligue 1 outfit in Lecce and has impressed everybody with his performances in pre-season, netting on his debut against Lugano and then again during the draw with Zenit St Petersburg.

“Is Lautaro a good player? He has to be,” Spalletti told Sport Mediaset. “If you come to play for Inter and you want to aim to play in big positions then you have to be an important player, and he is.

“The team is improving, you can see that the players are trying to put our style of play into practice.”

Spalletti was also asked again about Inter’s pursuit of Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric, providing an ironic response: “I think we can even aim to sign Messi nowadays, and I’d welcome him with open arms.”