Top News

Inter, the Serie A champions, have now pulled off a major move in the transfer market and are on the verge of completing the signing of Liverpool’s Curtis Jones.

The transfer had been developing for several weeks, and the Nerazzurri had even seen an earlier bid turned down during this transfer window. It had already been reported that this setback did not force Inter out of the race, while the player himself was also interested in making the switch.

The move is now effectively complete, with the Italian champions ready to pay a package worth €35 million to finalise the deal.

There are, however, several important reasons why this transfer had been building for quite some time.

Wherever Beppe Marotta has worked, he has built a reputation for securing players at favourable prices and for taking full advantage of contract situations.

Jones has turned out to be a very similar kind of opportunity. His Liverpool contract was due to expire in 2027, and Inter’s advances had also led him to reject the possibility of signing a renewal.

That gave the Nerazzurri an ideal opening to make their move, with the club able to lean on the player’s own desire to get the transfer done.

Jones has been particularly effective at driving the ball forward from deeper midfield positions. He is the sort of player who can unlock tightly packed defences, and that makes him very different from Davide Frattesi, who has now joined Lazio. The Italian operates more as a receiver in the final third and is not especially known for technical sharpness.

Jones would give Inter greater control in midfield and would improve the team’s overall baseline level.

With Frattesi gone, Inter also have to think about the age profile of the squad. Hakan Calhanoglu is now 32, while Henrikh Mkhitaryan is moving closer to 40, even though he has remained at the club. The clearest answer to that issue is to lower the squad’s average age. Jones helps do exactly that and, arguably, he could even provide more quality than Mkhitaryan while offering a similar profile.

On top of that, Aleksandar Stankovic is still only 21. Although he has been brought in, there is very little certainty that he can deliver consistently from the very first gameweek.

Jones brings that level of assurance, along with enough experience of performing at the highest level. In that sense too, he solves a number of issues for Inter.