Lautaro to Chelsea: Inter Milan reveal status of negotiations

Carlo Garganese

• 20 Jun 2023 09:22 BST
• 3 min read

Inter Milan vice president Javier Zanetti has revealed that the club are not in negotiations to sell Lautaro Martinez to Chelsea.

The Blues are in the market for a top-class attacker this summer and have been heavily linked in recent days with Lautaro.

Some reports have even gone as far as to say that Chelsea and Inter are in negotiations, with the Londoners offering players as part of the deal.

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But Inter vice president and legend Zanetti has rubbished the reports.

What did Zanetti say about Lautaro?

“There’s nothing with other clubs for Lautaro, no negotiations,” Zanetti said.

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“I can guarantee that Lautaro’s very happy at Inter.”

Indeed, of Inter’s four attackers from 2022-23, Lautaro is the only one who is almost certain to be at the club next term.

Edin Dzeko will leave on a free transfer when his contract expires, Romelu Lukaku has returned to Chelsea after his loan spell before Inter negotiate a possible new loan, while Joaquin Correa is available for transfer.

Lautaro is considered an indispensable member of the squad, and he scored an impressive 28 goals in all competitions last season as Inter won the Coppa Italia, Supercoppa Italiana and reached the Champions League final.

He has scored 102 goals in 238 games for Inter since joining from Racing in 2018.

The 25-year-old played a key role in Inter winning the Scudetto in 2021 under Antonio Conte.

He has a contract until 2026 at San Siro.

The attacker did struggle at the 2022 World Cup, despite Argentina winning the trophy.

After missing a host of chances in the first two games against Saudi Arabia and Mexico, he was dropped and only appeared as a substitute for the rest of the tournament.

Lautaro failed to score a goal at the World Cup, although he did find the net in penalty shootouts.