Inter manager Luciano Spalletti has fuelled talk they will try to hi-jack Juventus’ deal to sign Wojciech Szczesny after heaping praise on the Arsenal goalkeeper.
Szczesny is free to leave the Premier League side this summer after finishing an impressive two-year loan spell at Roma last season and the Poland international was expected to join Juventus.
However, the Serie A giants will not match Arsenal’s £15m valuation and are now monitoring the situation of Gianluigi Donnarumma, who will be out of contract at the end of next season.
Szczesny’s future remains unclear for now but there have been suggestions Spalletti, who was Roma manager last season, will look to reunite with the 27-year-old at San Siro.
The Inter head coach tried to dampen those rumours but it was notable that he also praised the Arsenal goalkeeper, leaving the door open to a summer swoop.
“Are you trying to make me argue with all my current players? We already have Samir Handanovic, who is very experienced and strong,” Spalletti told Sky Sport Italia, via Football Italia.
“I’ve already worked with him and I know his quality. For the moment we’ve got him. Then obviously Szczesny is a modern player, because he can use his feet and in modern football you need that to start moves from the back.
“We want to do something important this season and we have strong players in the squad, so first of all we’ll take into consideration those we’ve got and who I like.
“Then, looking at Financial Fair Play, we’ll try to improve the squad, focusing on sales first. It might seem as if Juventus, Roma and Napoli are impossible to catch, as it won’t be easy to get an extra nine or 10 victories per year. Our objective is to give Inter back the history it deserves."
Szczesny has spent the last two seasons in Italy and it would appear his future remains in Serie A where he has a very good reputation, which is of stark contrast to how he is viewed in England following his time at Arsenal.
In fact, of goalkeepers that made more than 25 appearances in Serie A last season only Donnarumma (7.05) and Lukasz Skorupski (7.00) secured higher WhoScored ratings than Szczesny (6.99). Furthermore, only two goalkeepers had a better pass success rate than the Arsenal shot-stopper (75.8%).
For more stats on Wojciech Szczesny, click here to visit his WhoScored player page
