United’s pursuit of Perisic leaves Inter irritated
Manchester United are trying to push through a deal for Ivan Perisic before the Croatia forward is due to fly to China with Inter Milan next Tuesday for the start of their preseason tour.
Negotiations for Perisic have been complicated by Inter’s irritation at the way United have gone about their approach for the 28-year-old but the Manchester club remain hopeful of getting a deal over the line.
United were understood to have made initial offers of around £26.7million and £28.5 million as they sought to exploit Inter’s need to raise a similar amount to break even for the 2016-17 season under the terms of a Financial Fair Play ruling from Uefa.
But Inter refused to sell Perisic for a knockdown fee in order to raise those funds and United have instead been forced to significantly raise their offer for the player. United are believed to have made an improved third bid of about £40 million in the past week but remain at least £9 million short of Inter’s valuation.
Jose Mourinho and his squad are currently in Los Angeles on United’s pre-season tour of the US but executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has stayed behind in London this week to oversee the Perisic negotiations and is not due in the US until Monday or Tuesday next week. Woodward will hope to have
made significant headway by then on Perisic, who is predominantly a wide player but is comfortable operating as a second striker. If a deal happened, Perisic would become United’s third summer signing after defender Victor Lindelof, who joined from Benfica for £30.7million, and striker Romelu Lukaku, whose transfer from Everton could end up costing as much as £90million. United also hope to prise England midfielder Eric Dier from Tottenham. Inter are due to fly to China next Tuesday ahead of a game against Schalke in Changzhou on July 22 and also play Lyon in Nanjing three days later before travelling to Singapore.
Luciano Spalletti, the Inter coach, wants to keep Perisic and has said he plans to sit down for talks with the player in the hope of persuading him to stay, but the Croat is eager to move to Old Trafford, where he would dramatically increase his earnings.
As well as a desire to play under Mourinho, Perisic also wants to be able to play Champions League football again.
“I will speak to everyone and, of course, for those who are distracted there will be different words,” Spalletti said. “I will listen to him [Perisic]. I’m counting on him but we’ll have to understand his intentions.
“You keep talking about Perisic and his desire to leave but I need to listen to his own words first and then decide how to act. ”
Like Perisic, Dier is understood to be excited by the prospect of a move to United, but Tottenham’s public stance is that they will not entertain any bids for him. In 2010, when still at Sporting Lisbon, Dier admitted it would be hard to turn down a move to his boyhood idols United.
“If the offer came today, I wouldn’t say I’d take it because I’m not sure it’s the right time,” he told the BBC at the time. “But if I cemented a place in Sporting’s first team and felt I was ready, then it would be very hard to turn down”.