Kovacic’s agent might not want him to leave Inter, but could Inter need to sell him?

Earlier this week we brought you the news that Inter Milan’s heavily linked to Arsenal midfielder Mateo Kovacic would not be leaving Inter Milan (according to his agent). It was a story that followed a weeks worth of speculation about the Croatian international that had seen him linked to both Arsenal and Barcelona.

But then this report emerged from TuttoMercatoWeb in Italy suggesting that whilst Inter might not want to sell him, they might have to sacrifice him to comply with Financial Fair Play.

Inter were one of Europe’s busiest (top) clubs in January and with expectations high for next season already, they will be busy again in the summer. Gone are the days, though, that an owner can simply throw money into a club and be done with it. Every club is accountable – and for Inter to finance the reshaping of their squad, something will have to give.

Kovacic is a saleable asset for Inter.

He has a long contract, is young and highly regarded across Europe. Crucially though, he isn’t the complete player yet and because of that he is almost a bit of a luxury for the Italian club who need players who are already the finished article to compete for Serie A next season. The fee being talked about for him is €30million (£22m) and if an offer came in for him around that figure, I’m convinced it would be looked at by the Inter manager and board (who have remained very quiet throughout all of the speculation).

What I still don’t get though is the question that we spoke about before and that Kovacic’s agent raised.

Why would a club agree a new improved deal if only to sell the player six months later? It might have been to add / remove a clause, but surely we would have heard about that before now.

It’s also not like his contract was running out. The plot thickens.

I very much doubt this is the last we’ve heard about Kovacic and Arsenal.