Juventus and Inter sporting directors Fabio Paratici and Piero Ausilio reportedly met in London this week and discussed the future of Mauro Icardi.
It’s been a turbulent campaign for the 26-year-old, as despite scoring 16 goals in 33 games for the Nerazzurri, he was stripped of the captaincy and was sidelined with an injury for a significant period to severely disrupt his campaign.
SEE MORE: Juventus ready to pay €100m for ambitious transfer of Barcelona star
Since that decision and amid an ongoing wait over developments for a contract renewal, question marks have been raised over Icardi’s future at the San Siro, and it appears as though Inter are prepared to sell, even to their bitter domestic rivals.
According to Calciomercato, Juventus and Inter officials sat down in London this week to discuss a potential deal, and it has been suggested that there will be no swap deal involving Paulo Dybala as previously reported while Inter want at least €80m for their talisman.
The issue lies in that Juventus are said to want to splash out up to €60m on the Argentine forward, and so it remains to be seen if the two parties can negotiate and reach a compromise somewhere between or if they stand their ground and talks collapse.
It’s easy to understand why Inter will try to maximise their return as they will need a significant fee to go out and sign a replacement for a player who has established himself as one of the most prolific forwards in Europe with 123 goals in 211 games since joining them.
As for Juventus, it will be interesting to see how Massimiliano Allegri integrates Icardi if he does join, as the Turin giants already have the likes of Mario Mandzukic, Cristiano Ronaldo, Federico Bernardeschi, Douglas Costa and Dybala vying for places in the final third, and so that would suggest that perhaps a sacrifice will need to be made to make room in the line-up.
