Luciano Spalletti blamed Inter “directors” for Mauro Icardi’s poor form. “They talked about the contract, so now go and conclude it.”
The striker and captain has not found the net for seven Serie A games, his longest drought since joining the club.
He again seemed out of sorts in last night’s 1-0 win away to Parma, which was decided by substitute Lautaro Martinez.
Luciano Spalletti blamed Inter “directors” for Mauro Icardi’s poor form. “They talked about the contract, so now go and conclude it.”
The striker and captain has not found the net for seven Serie A games, his longest drought since joining the club.
He again seemed out of sorts in last night’s 1-0 win away to Parma, which was decided by substitute Lautaro Martinez.
Coach Spalletti mentioned the contract renewal talks in his post-match interview with DAZN.
However, he was even clearer in the Press conference that followed later that night.
“Mauro is evidently seeing his performance affected by some situations that have been going on recently. He needs to free himself from the talk that is around him.
“The directors agreed to start talking about the contract, so now they need to go there and conclude it.”
Negotiations with Icardi’s wife and agent Wanda Nara have been dragging on for weeks.
They include an increased salary to €10m per year – although the offer on the table remains €7m plus bonuses – and adjusting the release clause.
It is worth €120m and can be activated by a club outside Italy only during a two-week period in the summer.
Many have seen this as Spalletti’s latest attack on directors Beppe Marotta and Piero Ausilio, as he already publicly complained that Marotta should not have confirmed Ivan Perisic made a transfer request.
The move to Arsenal did not go through and Perisic barely played during the negotiations.