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Ivan Perisic (file pic).
Out of favour

Croatian World Cup star benched amid Arsenal speculation

Inter CEO Giuseppe Marotta told Sky Italia that Ivan Perisic has requested to leave the club.

IVAN PERISIC HAS been left on the bench for Inter’s Serie A encounter with Torino amid speculation linking the midfielder with a transfer to Arsenal.

Inter have reportedly rejected a loan offer made for the 29-year-old by the Gunners, whose boss Unai Emery has already confirmed he will only be able to sign players on a temporary basis in January.

But a potential move for Perisic may have edged closer, with Luciano Spalletti having left the Croatia international out of his starting XI for Sunday’s visit to Torino.

Perisic starred at Russia 2018 as Croatia made it to their first World Cup final, but his form for Inter has tailed off, with the former Wolfsburg star having netted just three goals across 25 appearances in all competitions so far this campaign.

Spalletti hinted in his pre-match news conference that a deal could be done, but Inter’s head coach told Sky Italia that the price must be right.

“It’s a player that has been talked about because everyone values him as much as we do, and if anyone wants to buy him they will need to pay him good money because we rate him a lot,” he said.

It nows seems that deal for the winger is even closer after Inter CEO Giuseppe Marotta told Sky Italia that Perisic has requested to leave the club.

“Perisic has asked to be sold and we have to try to satisfy him by respecting the value of assets,” he said.

“No concrete offers have arrived yet but we have to understand and meet him. If he stays with us we will try to give him the chance to get to the end of the year.”

It therefore seems likely that should Arsenal sign Perisic it would have to be on a permanent deal, something which could scupper any proposed deal.

The Gunners have also been linked with loans for Barcelona’s Denis Suarez and Paris Saint-Germain’s Christopher Nkunku.

Should any of the above sign for Arsenal they will join an injury-ravaged squad .

Unai Emery is without key defender Laurent Koscielny, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Hector Bellerin, and has therefore it has also been reported he may attempt to bring in some defensive cover before the window closes on Thursday.

Just over a week out from the 2019 Six Nations openers, Murray Kinsella and Gavan Casey are joined by Bernard Jackman to look at Ireland’s bid for another Grand Slam:


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