Italian football journalist and football transfer market expert Luca Marchetti has confirmed that there are negotiations between Inter and Barcelona over Lautaro Martinez but there is currently an obstacle to negotiations.
Barcelona have seemingly identified the highly rated 22-year-old striker as one of their number one transfer targets ahead of the upcoming Summer transfer window.
Lautaro has a €111 million release clause in his current contract with Inter but Barcelona would prefer to do a player(s) plus cash deal with the Nerazzurri and this transfer formula is proving problematic at the moment.
“The evaluations of the individual players that Barcelona would like to insert is an obstacle but there are negotiations taking place and they are very strong,” Marchetti remarked in an interview with Italian radio station TMW Radio earlier on today.
He then went on to discuss something that Inter chief executive Giuseppe ‘Beppe’ Marotta may be forced into doing if unable to offload Mauro Icardi in the event that Paris Saint Germain do not take up their option to sign him for €70 million.
“If Marotta does not manage to sell Icardi in good time, then he may be forced to give up an important piece of his squad.”
He concluded by downplaying reports that have seen Inter target Dries Mertens linked to city rivals AC Milan: “His signing wouldn’t conform to the line that they have taken.”
