Ivan Perisic became the latest high-profile player to receive the chop from Antonio Conte yesterday as Inter’s new boss put him up for sale, according to Gazzetta dello Sport.
Perisic has always figured on the list of players the Nerazzurri might offload this summer, but he was never officially ‘out of the project’ like Mauro Icardi and Radja Nainggolan.
No club has come close to meeting Inter’s €30 million valuation of the player yet, but it now seems Perisic is destined to leave regardless.
“If it’s not possible for Inter to sell Perisic then they’ll accept a loan deal for him, much like they did with Nainggolan,” the paper reported this morning.
“It’s not because they need money that they’re trying to move him on, it’s because they want to make a clean break from the past.
“Getting rid of Perisic would mean getting rid of another key figure from a season which was characterised more by tension, arguments and dressing room leaks than by success on the pitch.”
Conte initially wanted to convert Perisic into a wing-back for his 3-5-2 system but it wasn’t long before he gave up on that experiment.
Inter’s new boss wants four attackers in his squad, which are expected to be Lautaro Martinez, Matteo Politano and two new arrivals.
Politano was also for sale until recently, but the former Sassuolo forward is now officially off the market because Conte prefers him to Perisic.
Perisic is running out of time to seal a return to the Premier League, with England’s transfer window due to close tomorrow, which means Monaco could become favourites to poach him.
