Tottenham Hotspur transfer chief Fabio Paratici insists rumours of interest in Inter pair Marcelo Brozovic and Milan Skriniar are ‘unfounded,’ while Mauro Icardi was ‘never close’ to joining Juventus.
The former Juve and Sampdoria director is now in charge of Premier League club Spurs and was attending the Festival dello Sport event in Trento this evening.
During the Q&A on stage, he was asked about the reports of a bid for Inter defender Skriniar and midfielder Brozovic.
“The rumours are unfounded. We have never even approached Brozovic, he is an Inter player,” was the response from Paratici.
Brozovic’s contract with the Nerazzurri is due to expire at the end of the season, so he could become a free agent.
Paratici was also asked about the situation at Milan, where Gianluigi Donnarumma refused a new contract and signed for Paris Saint-Germain as a free agent.
“I think Milan did everything possible to keep him, but at the end of the day, there’s a player who makes his decisions. In general, I think it wrong to look down upon a free signing, because you can lose a player for free, but also pick one up with zero cost.”
Certainly not available for free is Icardi, who moved from Inter to PSG, but has been linked with Juventus for many years.
“He was never close to Juve for a series of situations. He was under contract with Inter and it was a complicated transfer to work out. Then we had great strikers at Juve and it was tough to find someone better.
“There was a lot of talk about Icardi, but he was never close.”
💥 #Inter, #Paratici smentisce l’interesse per #Skriniar e #Brozovic. “#Vlahovic non rientra nei piani del #Tottenham, e su #Icardi…”https://t.co/CCTvU9xIV8
— calciomercato.it (@calciomercatoit) October 10, 2021