Inter are scouting a whole host of players in South America currently according to transfer market expert Gianluca Di Marzio.
Boca Juniors Cristian Pavon, Racing Club’s Lautaro Martinez and Gremio’s Arthur are just three of the names which the Nerazzurri have cast an eye over recently during scouting missions in South America.
Inter are not alone in courting Martinez with Fiorentina and Atletico Madrid both interested in him. Fiorentina made a move for him last month while Atleti boss and former Inter favourite Diego Simeone called the player in an attempt to convince him to move. Martinez has a €9 million release clause and the fee would be paid straight to the player instead of his club.
Inter scouted Arthur, who won the Copa Libertadores with his side on Wednesday night, over the two legged final and now the Nerazzurri must choose which player they want to add to their ranks. For January anyway, Inter can only add one of the three due to having only one non-EU player spot available.
Arthur looks very promising but his tag price is crazy i mean Barca paid a lot for Neymar when they got him but Ney is Ney and everyone knew , as for king Arthur it would be catastrophic if he turns out like the Lion Gabigoal LoL
I think his release clause is 50mn but sense I get from all the media reports is that Gremio will sell for a lower amount. Problem again is that family/entourage owns 30 odd percent of economic rights and may drive transfer fees up more than Gremio. We should try to include Gabigol in the discussions if possible as think he could still have decent value as a counterweight.
As far as i know price goes up for great players no down !!!
Yes I am sure they would need to give us Arthur and some money on top for Gabigol =)
NO i meant Arthur if is really that great it should be no problem for them to raise the praise instead of lowering . I stoped talking about gabigoal recently !
Even in the current inflated market I don’t see a club willing to pay the 50mn release clause for Arthur. There are a few reasons for this:
(i) the highest transfer fee ever paid for a transfer from South America in nominal terms was the 88mn Barcelona paid for Neymar who is the most hyped teenager to come out of Brazil since Pele. I personally think El Phenomenon is the greatest ever but lets face it he didn’t have the same level of euphoria surrounding him when he left Cruzeiro for PSV
(ii) the second highest fee ever paid for a player from a South American club is the 32mn Man City paid for Gabriel Jesus to Palmeiras. Lets remember Jesus was being hailed as the second coming of the ‘real’ Ronaldo (which he really isn’t) at the time and was coming off a very impressive showing in Brazil’s run to Olympic gold (something that also led us to pay nearly 30mn for Gabigol. I know I have a tendency to bring up sour grapes). This is obviously not taking account of inflation which would probably put the 31.5mn Betis paid for Denilson back in 1998 way up there.
(iii) the most hyped (potentially overhyped) player expected to cross continents over the summer is another striker, Vinicius Junior, who will be moving from Flamengo to Real Madrid next year for 45mn. There is speculation that this trade comes with first rights on a number of Flamengo’s future prospects so real value likely closer to Jesus.
Accordingly, I think we can treat the fee paid for Jesus as the ceiling going into the summer window. In addition, strikers tend to attract higher transfer fees and my view is that unless Barcelona or Dortmund start spending stupid money left over from the Neymar and Dembele transfers on South American prospects, Gremio would be happy to do business in the 20-25mn range for Arthur.
As I mentioned in another thread the best option for 25mn or under is Lucas Torreira assuming Sampdoria don’t find a way to increase his minimum release clause before its exercisable in the summer. Both are similar players and while Arthur might be a bit more silky smooth ala Xavi, Lucas is already proven in Serie A and both have similar margins for improvement given they are both 21.
I expect there to be a lot of competition for Torreira and Arthur’s signatures over the summer and in case we lose out in the bidding war I think other deep lying promising young players we could consider to add quality and depth to our midfield include Ndidi (Leicester, very physical player with great passing ability), Ascacibar (Stuttgart, who has modeled his game after Cambiasso and after some growing pains is finally settling in the Bundesliga) and Bissouma (Lille, another technically gifted player who is great defensively as well).
I know there is a lot of talk about a possible move for Cristante or Barella and while both would be great additions to the team I see them better suited to play as trequartista than in deeper midfield roles due to their tendencies to go for killer balls and/or try long shots.
I just realized I gave a very long-winded response to your comment but guess I have a tendency to work over time when it comes to Inter and the transfer market
Agreed Arthur is probably the most promising and seems like the ball just stick to him. He doesn’t go for the fantastic but effortlessly keeps the midfield ticking. Very impressive in the few games I have managed to watch him in.
I think that he would make most sense from our perspective given that we could use another player who can play a bit deeper in midfield particularly with Joao Mario likely to be on his way out. In an ideal world we could perhaps do a swap with Gabigol for him as think a lot of Brazilian clubs still rate him very highly.
I also like Pavon but think Verdi would be a better buy given that he would probably cost less, is proven in Serie A and think would be good to add another Italian to our ranks.
I am not a fan of Martinez to be honest. He isn’t clinical enough for a number 9 and loses the ball too much. Major plus point is the 9mn release clause but hearing that with signing and agent fees on top total package closer to 15mn and at that price doesn’t seem like a good deal particularly given how stretched our finances are at the moment.
This Arthur can be world class. I rarely get excited about these South American youngsters, but this guy with big probability will be the real deal. He’d be great midfielder in Spalletti’s system. My guess is that Man Shitty or Barca snaps him up.