Still having not received the green light from Liverpool regarding their transfer proposal to acquire Dirk Kuyt, Inter Milan already prepare to raid another player from the English side. Just as it was rumored previously, their next target is Javier Mascherano who along with Kuyt are Rafael Benitez’s favorite players during the Spaniard’s time at the Reds.
According to English’ newspaper, The Sun, Inter have made an official bid to Liverpool which amount is the same as the players’ price tag around 20 million Euro.
The news was reportedly revealed by the Nerazzurri’s director, Marco Branca himself who send the offer via fax on Tuesday and at the moment still haven’t been replied by the EPL side.
“I sent an offer to Liverpool by fax on Tuesday and I am waiting for a reply from them, We’re not speaking to the player at the moment because we want to do this in the right way and make sure that Liverpool are happy,” Branca said to the paper. “Everybody knows that Mascherano would like to change team and to change country. He also has a good relationship with our manager Rafa Benitez. “
Masherano himself reportedly has refused to play in Liverpool’s last game in the league against Machester City, which resulted him being frozen by his teammates. However, at the time the reason for his refusal to take the pitch was because there were reports about Barcelona’s interest on the Argentian that was rejected by his current club.
Not that Inter have officially enter the race, it would be interesting to witness which club that Mascherano would pick in the end as both teams have their own advantages for the player. Should he join the Italian giant, the 26-year-old midfielder will be reunited with his previous manager which can provide him a much more comfortable and adaptable condition.
It is very interesting movement made by Inter as previously they doesn’t seem too serious in adding new high profile players into the squad as they reportedly are considering to sign local talents such as Giuseppe Sculli and Luca Antonelli instead. However, things seems to change lately especially after the transfer moves made by their rivals, Juventus and Milan, that are keen on singing new stars for their team.
With the possibility of having a tougher competition next season, it looks like the Nerazzurri have change their approach as the deals with both Sculli and Antonelli suddenly collapsed despite the everything is almost done. Now surprisingly the Nerazzuri finally decided that they want to go on for bigger targets such as Kuyt and Mashcerano.
Explaining about this decision Branca added, “We have a strong team here, the best in Europe, but we would like to add one or two players to make us even stronger.”
photo credit: Ben Sutherland
