Inter Milan boss SLAMS Man Utd over Andre Onana deal

Stuart Telford

• 6 Jul 2023 08:28 BST
• 3 min read

Inter Milan sporting director Piero Ausilio has slammed Manchester United for trying to lowball them for Andre Onana's services.

United are in the market for a new goalkeeper with David de Gea out of contract, and Onana, who previously worked under Erik ten Hag at Ajax, is their top transfer target for the position.

The Red Devils submitted a bit of €40 million plus €6m in add-ons, but it was rejected with Inter holding out for closer to €60m for their Cameroonian shot-stopper.

READ: Man Utd submit LOWBALL offer for Andre Onana

Onana distribution June's Champions League final even put Ederson's in the shade, despite Manchester City beating Inter 1-0, and Ausilio is demanding a fee commensurate with Onana's new standing.

Onana bid 'not at the expected level'

"As of today, the proposals are not at the level we expected," he said. "In this moment, he's our goalkeeper and Andre is key player for us - we'd like to keep him, then we'll see what happens. We wait for him on 13 July for pre-season."

Onana has an ETV of €40.1m per FootballTransfers' in-house algorithm, so United might feel that their opening bid wasn't unreasonable, but they also need to keep their purse strings tight before selling players this summer.

READ: Why Man Utd need Maguire to replace De Gea

The Glazer family haven't contributed an equity investment in the club for three years so their summer transfer budget was £120m, before they paid Chelsea £55m of that for Mason Mount.

One potential solution might be the use of Harry Maguire as a makeweight. The England defender is out of favour at Old Trafford but still valued at €27.6m per FootballTransfers.

Inter enquired about Maguire in January but Ten Hag was loath to let him go mid-season, but now the Italians have lost Milan Skriniar on a free transfer to PSG they could step up their efforts to sign him.