Why Man Utd, Chelsea & Arsenal-target Lautaro will probably be sold

Carlo Garganese

• 3 May 2022 09:00 BST
• 4 min read

Another day, another forward linked with Manchester United.

The newest forward associated with a summer transfer to Old Trafford is Inter Milan attacker Lautaro Martinez.

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The Daily Express reports that incoming Man Utd manager Erik ten Hag is a big fan of the Argentine and that Anthony Martial could be offered to the Nerazzurri in a player-plus-cash deal.

Just how much truth there is in Man Utd’s interest in Lautaro is unclear. It’s also debatable whether the Scudetto winner will be keen to join a club who almost certainly won’t be in next season’s Champions League.

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The Express adds on Tuesday that Chelsea have also joined the chase for Lautaro and he could either pair up with his former Inter strike-partner Romelu Lukaku, or replace the Belgium flop.

What is certain, though, is that Inter are considering selling Lautaro for both financial and sporting reasons.

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Financially, Inter’s Chinese owners Suning need to again sell at least one big-name player at the end of the season.

Chinese retail conglomerate Suning bought the Italian giants in 2016 and invested hundreds of millions of euros in the club over recent years, end Juventus’ Scudetto dominance last season.

But the Coronavirus pandemic – as well as Chinese government laws restricting Chinese companies from heavy investment overseas – pushed Inter into a financial crisis.

As a result, they were forced to sell their two most valuable players last summer in Romelu Lukaku and Achraf Hakimi, who between them raised around €185 million.

This helped cut Suning’s debts substantially and Inter are now on much stronger financial footing. But it is understood that the Nerazzurri will need to make another major sacrifice this summer, too.

Valued at €90m by FootballTransfers and with much of his transfer fee amortised having arrived in 2018, Lautaro (whose new contract expires in 2026) represents Inter’s most valuable player by a distance and someone who will bring the biggest capital gain if sold.

From a sporting point of view, Inter consider Lautaro replaceable.

Although he played an important role in Inter’s Scudetto victory last season alongside Lukaku and has scored over 60 goals in the last three seasons, he hasn’t developed into the world-class attacker everyone expected him to become.

Lautaro is a very streaky attacker. Over the past few years, he has embarked on a number of long-scoring droughts that are then remedied by bursts of goals to bring his overall numbers up.

Inter believe that if they can make €70-90m on Lautaro, they can then reinvest that money in two or three players that will strengthen the overall team.

Italy’s most promising number 9, Gianluca Scamacca of Sassuolo, is the main target for the attack. Meanwhile, Serie A’s best defender this season – Bremer of Torino – is in advanced talks with Inter, too.

These two deals are only possible if Inter sacrifice a big-name player for a significant amount of cash. The alternatives with a high value are Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolo Barella – two players who Inter consider unsellable and much more difficult to replace.

Therefore, the chances of Lautaro – who received bids from Arsenal and Tottenham at the start of the season – leaving this summer are pretty good.