Rumour Mongering: Reds and Chelsea Warned off Serie A Star

Winger Ivan Perisic spent a couple of seasons in Germany playing under Jürgen Klopp at Borussia Dortmund, which right off the bat is going to make him a potential transfer target in the eyes of some. So far, though, few have seriously suggested the 28-year-old was on Liverpool’s radar.

Today, rather suddenly, he is a Liverpool target. Largely on account of Inter Milan’s sporting director warning them off him. He’s also, according to the Italian press, meant to be warning off Chelsea and Manchester United, who they claim are also interested in the Serie A star.

“I don’t think it is either Perisic’s or our intentions for him to leave,” Peiro Ausilio is reported as having said today. “He is a massive part of our project and we do not want to sell our players. We cannot envisage an Inter without Perisic. We are not going to get rid of our best players.”

Which all reads a little odd. On account of the part where if you’d asked a hundred Liverpool fans to list five players the club was meant to be after before today, not a single one of them would have included Perisic on that list. If there is any interest in him, that interest hasn’t made it to the press.

At least not in England. In Italy, it has been hinted at once or twice, but never very seriously—and never to the point where even the trashiest of transfer outlets in England saw fit to trumpet Perisic, a former Klopp player, as a potential future one as well. Perhaps, then, he’s looking for a new contract.

Perisic’s current Inter deal runs through 2020, but his performances make him look a far more valuable player for then than when he signed in 2015. Given Liverpool are now all of a sudden being warned off a player they hadn’t been seriously linked to yesterday, that’s the easiest assumption.

Perisic wants a new deal, his agent starts to name-drop a English clubs to a friend in the press, and it doesn’t take long before his current club are saying they aren’t looking to sell him. Give it a month and the news will be Perisic’s new deal undermining Liverpool’s summer transfer plans.