Beyond Lukaku: Inter prepare for major overhaul in the summer transfer window

With an underperforming and importantly, an underachieving squad under Simone Inzaghi this season, Inter are preparing for a mass exodus of their playing staff over the summer months, reports Gazzetta.

From top to bottom, Inter has been under intense scrutiny recently after picking up an alarming nine defeats in 27 Serie A matches. 

Additionally, eight of the eleven players who started against Juventus in the Derby d’Italia on Sunday evening were already aged over 30 and a refresh of the squad is now considered a top priority. 

As a result, a large section of Inzaghi’s starting line-up from this season are expected to depart from San Siro in the coming months according to reports in Italy. 

Gazzetta dello Sport has identified Marcelo Brozovic, Denzel Dumfries and Joaquin Correa as players who could fetch relatively decent sell-on fees if they were to be moved on. 

The latter signed permanently at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza from Lazio for around €31m less than a year ago, although Inter are reportedly already willing to cut their losses on the struggling Argentine forward. 

Brozovic and Dumfries are also among the club’s highest earners and Inter could potentially find better value for their money elsewhere. 

Of the eleven who started against Juve at the weekend, six will be out of contract by the end of the season. 

Of those six, only Edin Dzeko and Stefan De Vrij have entered negotiations over a potential renewal, both of whom will likely command relatively high wages. 

Gazzetta writes that the situation with De Vrij is particularly complicated, given that he has lost his status as a guaranteed starter under Inzaghi and currently picks up €4.5m per season. 

Then, there are the returning loanees, including Romelu Lukaku who will return to Chelsea in June and Raoul Bellanova, who is still contracted to parent club Cagliari. 

Lukaku’s services cost Inter around €20m for this season alone and a renewal on both his current form and terms is considered to be highly unlikely. 

It appears that nobody in the Inter squad is particularly safe at this point in time and we could see an entirely different-looking Nerazzurri come to the start of next season in August.