Spalleti concedes Perisic may leave Inter
Inter Milan attacker Ivan Perisic’s future was cast into doubt again amid rumours of a Manchester United move after manager Luciano Spalleti conceded that he is unclear whether the Croatian will be staying in San Siro.
The Inter coach’s admission came at the post-match press conference in Singapore following Inter Milan’s 2-0 win over German champions Bayern Munich on the second day of the International Champions Cup.
Perisic, 29, starred in the game as he created all sorts of problems down Bayern’s right. He also provided the pin-point cross for Eder Martins’ second goal of the game.
It was not only his attacking contributions that stood out, as he constantly tracked back to nullify Bayern’s right-back Rafinha’s runs, as well as cover for his teammates when they moved out of position.
When asked about Perisic, who has been subjected to bids from the English giants over the summer, Spalleti replied that his “intention is to keep Perisic if possible”.
“He’s a world-class player, whether he played well or not doesn’t change my mind. We want to keep him,” said Spalleti.
“But there’s a lot of considerations to be made and I can’t say for sure whether he will stay (at Inter Milan) or not,” Spalleti added.
Spalleti also said that Inter’s performance showed that they can compete with Champions’ League-quality teams, despite having not qualified for Europe’s premier competition since 2012.
But this summer, Inter have strengthened the squad, including appointing Spalleti on a two-year contract. He led Roma to a third place finish the previous season.
“We played very well… Inter can still play this kind of games,” said Spalleti.
“These are the type of challenges that we want to have. We want to play with these teams of this level so that we can improve over time.
“But if I had to be picky, I would have to say in the second half, we could have been a little bit more aggressive with Bayern. We could have maybe been a little bit better but overall, I think we had a good game.”
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