Inter Milan are still pushing for Curtis Jones, and reports suggest the Serie A side are weighing up a fresh bid after Liverpool rejected their earlier approaches.
The latest is that the Italian club have not backed away from the move, even as the fee gap remains a major obstacle, and are weighing up a third bid
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Inter’s interest in Jones has been building for months, with the Liverpool midfielder emerging as one of their top midfield targets.
Their first formal offer was around €25 million, but Liverpool turned it down immediately because it fell well short of their valuation. Since then, a second bid was rejected.
The situation has only become more interesting because Jones is now in the final one-year stretch of his current deal at Anfield, which has naturally encouraged speculation about a possible summer move. Even so, Liverpool are believed to be holding firm on a figure closer to €40 million.
That has left Inter trying to find a number that works without overpaying.
Nottingham Forest had already reportedly reached an agreement with Jones, only for the 25-year-old himself to suggest those rumours were wide of the mark on Instagram.
There is a third bid expected from the Serie A giants imminently.
Now Inter Milan president Giuseppe Marotta has suggested that the club are “not able to do certain operations” amid report of another offer heading Liverpool’s way.
“When you get close to certain players, the valuations shoot up significantly. Italian clubs, not just Inter, are not able to do certain operations that do not have a rationality,” FC InterNews quotes.
“You can also do irrational operations, but it is not part of our modus operandi. We have to make rational operations. The possibility of investment is there, but it must be a logical possibility.”
“We are not competitive, I mean Italian clubs in general, like English teams, but we can play a leading role, with creativity we can use on the market,” Marotta explained.
Furthermore, it’s reported that Inter Milan has turned their attention away from Chelsea’s Trevor Chaloba, after it emerged that Chelsea is asking for at least €35 million, suggesting that they likewise won’t be willing to get near to Liverpool’s own €40m valuation of Jones.