Inter President Steven Zhang’s denials that the Nerazzurri is for sale could just be a ploy to keep the asking price for the club up.

This according to today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, who suggest that the Inter President could just be projecting strength so as to not have a weak position in negotiating a sale.

Reports over the past couple of weeks have strongly linked Inter with a permanent sale.

However, Zhang has responded to these reports in no uncertain terms with his statements after the team qualified for the Champions League knockout stage, and at today’s annual shareholders’ meeting.

The President has continued to stress the line that Suning are only looking for minority investment but not to complete an outright sale of Inter.

However, for the Gazzetta there could be more to the President’s intentions beneath the surface.

Zhang, the newspaper suggests, may well simply want to show strength so that when negotiations do begin with any serious buyers, Suning can hold strongly to their asking price of €1.2 billion for the Nerazzurri.