Inter Milan midfielder Ivan Perisic has submitted a transfer request to leave the Serie A side after a loan bid for him from Arsenal was rejected by the club. With the prospect of joining the Gunners full time after the loan, the Croatian is seeking his way out of Italy.
Perisic was named in Inter’s starting XI only 14 times out of their 20 Serie A games this term, and, despite heavily impressing in the World Cup last year, as well as scoring in the 4-2 loss to France in the finals, the Croatian midfielder has failed to find form since. The 29-year old was benched in Inter’s 1-0 loss at Torino, and has managed only 3 goals and 5 assists in 25 games overall.
Arsenal head coach Unai Emery, despite stating only loan deals will be possible this window, has Perisic on his high priority list.
Although the Serie A club earlier rejected the Gunners’ loan bid for Perisic, which also had the option to buy him for £34.5m, Inter director Guiseppe Marotta said, “Perisic has asked to leave but there is no offer for him. We will see in the coming days,” as per reports.
“We will listen to the request of Perisic, he has put in a transfer request; we must try to satisfy him but also respect the value of him,” he added.
Head coach Luciano Spalletti said: “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.”