Inter director Piero Ausilio admits he would sign Romelu Lukaku again ‘but only on loan’ and confirms the Nerazzurri were in talks to sign Marcus Thuram in the summer.
Lukaku returned to Chelsea from Inter in a €115m deal last summer. The Belgian striker had scored 64 goals in 95 games with the Serie A giants.
His agent Federico Pastorello claimed last week that Lukaku would return to Serie A one day as he is in love with Italy. Would Ausilio sign him again at Inter?
“Yes, but only on loan,” the Inter director said smiling during an interview with Sky Sport Italia.
Lukaku followed the likes of Antonio Conte and Achraf Hakimi away from San Siro, while the Nerazzurri had to find a replacement for Christian Eriksen, who suffered cardiac arrest during the Euros.
“The situation wasn’t as bad as it was described, but losing Conte, Lukaku, Eriksen and Hakimi could have killed anyone, but not Inter, you can’t give up after the first difficulty,” Ausilio continued.
“We felt confused when Lukaku asked us to leave because the player we had sacrificed on the market was Hakimi. However, we didn’t give up, we spoke to the coach and we picked the right players in [Edin] Dzeko and [Joaquin] Correa.
“We need to last in time, we need economic stability, but we also need to keep the quality high. Inter will never be weaker after a transfer window. We are in direct contact with the owners and the team is focused on the daily work.
“In terms of revenues, the gap between Serie A and Premier League is huge. It’s hard to compete against West Ham or Leicester City, not just the top clubs.”
Ausilio doesn’t expect a busy January transfer window for the Nerazzurri: “We are competitve, the number of players we have is perfect, things can only change if one of the players who are not getting regular playing time ask to leave,” he said.
“We were in talks to sign Thuram in the summer, but now we are happy with our team.”
Inter have recently extended with Lautaro Martinez, Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolò Barella.
They hope to do the same with Marcelo Brozovic, Federico Dimarco, Samir Handanovic and Ivan Perisic.
Handanovic, Brozovic and Perisic see their contract expire at the end of the campaign.
“We finalised three important operations and now we are in talks with Brozovic. Soon we will sit down with Perisic and Handanovic as well. We are also in talks with Dimarco and both parties are happy to continue together.”