Arsenal opened talks for Lautaro Martinez, but the player and Inter rebuffed them. The Gunners were willing to insert Alexandre Lacazette and Hector Bellerin in a €70M package. The striker is not particularly keen on moving to the Premier League and wants to play in the Champions League next season, SportMediaset reports.
The outlet adds that the 23-year-old striker prefers transferring to La Liga, should he leave Inter. Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid have all showed interest in him. However, there are no ongoing negotiations currently.
According to Sky Sport, Inter desire to come to terms on his new contract sooner rather than later. Martinez has two years left on his deal. If the talks continued to lag, his departure could not be ruled out, although it would take a mammoth fee. If that were the case, the Nerazzurri would look to monetize fully without getting too close to the end of his pact.
The Argentinian striker turned down €4.5M wages and fired his previous representatives earlier this year. He is looking to get €2M more annually, Calciomercato.com informs. His new agent, Alejandro Camano, is the same as Achraf Hakimi. The intermediary put the extension talks on hold but stated that the player wants to stay this summer.
Inter are on the same page, but they would have less leverage next year without an extension. It would reportedly take €80/90M to convince them to sell him in this window. Their preferred options to eventually replace him are Joaquin Correa and Dusan Vlahovic, the outlets say.