Milan Skriniar has delivered a huge blow to Tottenham Hotspur’s chances of landing him by admitting in an interview that he wants to stay at Inter Milan next season.
Reports have suggested that Tottenham and Inter could potentially sanction a swap deal this summer that would see Skriniar move to North London and Tanguy Ndombele heading the other way (Sky Sports Italia via Sempre Inter).
The central defender fell out of favour with Antonio Conte towards the end of last season and it has been reported that the Serie A club are keen to cash-in on him this summer Tuttosport (via Sport Witness).
Jose Mourinho is reportedly keen on bringing the 25-year-old to Spurs, while PSG have also been credited with an interest in the centre-back (Gianluca Di Marzio).
Skriniar has now insisted that he is happy to stay at the San Siro despite finding game time hard to come by towards the end of last season.
In an interview to Slovakian news outlet Sport.aktuality.sk (as translated by Sempre Inter), he said: “I must say that I was used to playing regularly then when we started playing every three days, the coach started making changes.
“Since the team was doing well and we were conceding few goals, the coach preferred not to change anything until the Europa League final. Sure, I was sorry, but the important thing was that the team achieved good results.”
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The defender claimed that he had not been informed that he is surplus to requirements at Inter and expressed his desire to stay and fight for his place.
Skriniar added: “Am I leaving Inter? I have no information regarding that. I still have a three-year contract with the club, I have an agreement with Inter and I am a player at the club.
“Nobody at Inter has told me they don’t want me. Conte still wants me in Milan. It is not easy for him to choose who to play among the 30 players available to him.
“Of course, he doesn’t make choices to hurt anyone. He chooses for the good of the team and I have no reason to leave Inter. They still want me and I’ve always been involved in training. I’m the same player as always.”
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While it sounds like Skriniar wants to stay and fight for his place, reports suggest that Inter are determined to cash in on him. Given that he has three years left to run on his deal, they would have to sell him this summer if they are going to get maximum value for him in the transfer market. Antonio Conte also seems to have won his power play with the Inter owners which makes me believe he will get his way in the transfer market. So I expect the Serie A giants to sell Skriniar in order to fund moves for Conte’s main targets and I would be extremely surprised if Spurs were not interested in the Slovak.
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