With the departure of Achraf Hakimi to Paris Saint-Germain close to being a done deal, Inter are not yet done with offloading players.
This according to today’s print edition of Rome-based newspaper Corriere dello Sport, who claim that the next tasks on the Nerazzurri’s agenda will be finding new clubs for unwanted squad members Radja Nainggolan, Joao Mario, and Valentino Lazaro.
Each of the three players spent all or part of last season on loan, and it is thought that Inter CEO Beppe Marotta has made shifting their wages off of Inter’s books permanently a priority.
Mario and Nainggolan finished last season on loan at Sporting CP and Cagliari respectively, and each player was happy at their loan destination and wishes to make the stay permanent.
However, it remains to be seen if the Nerazzurri will be able to complete the deals to keep the players in Lisbon and Sardinia respectively, and they could look to other possibilities should these deals continue to stall.
Lazaro, meanwhile, spent last season on loan with Borussia Monchengladbach, and has recently been linked with a possible return to Newcastle United, where he spent the second half of the 2021-22 season on loan.
Meanwhile, the possibility of signing 30-year-old Dutch international Patrick Van Aanholt has come up as a possible solution to the club’s need for a left-sided player, with the player’s contract and current club Crystal Palace set to expire.
Van Aanholt joins Chelsea’s Marcos Alonso in consideration for the left-sided role, with the Spaniard currently the favourite but set to cost €18-20 million.
And on the right side, Chelsea’s Davide Zappacosta is a strong possibility, while Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin could arrive on loan with an option to buy and Lazio’s Manuel Lazzari remains a top target for Inter coach Simone Inzaghi though the latter could prove difficult to negotiate for.
