Alexis Sanchez is joining Inter Milan on loan, where he’ll link up once again with former Man United team-mate Romelu Lukaku, who signed for the Italian club earlier this summer. It’ll be the reunification of a fearsome forward-line partnership that produced upwards of several Premier League goals.
But while Inter’s tifosi have every right to be excited about the arrival of a pair of big-name stars on astronomic pay-packets who couldn’t make the grade at England’s sixth-best team, there are plenty of other, similar targets their club should be looking at before the transfer window SLAMS SHUT next week.
Here are five of the best.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Sanchez and Mkhitaryan’s fates have been intertwined in recent years – mostly thanks to them both being costly white elephants who their clubs couldn’t get rid of fast enough – so why not unite them in black-and-blue?
There would be no limit to the potential these two could have as a comedy duo. Mkhitaryan and Sanchez on the flanks, overhitting 20 crosses per game as Lukaku bumps off defenders in the middle while shrugging in despair at the fact he hasn’t touched the ball in 33 minutes.
Magical stuff.
Gareth Bale
In Bale’s defence, he’s clearly a stupendously gifted player. But, well, he is simply just not bothered with this football lark any more.
If reports are to be believed, he spends more time playing golf than the entire PGA Tour group combined. Zinedine Zidane seems committed to getting rid of the Welshman at all costs, so opportunity knocks for Conte and Inter.
Perhaps Bale’s happy memories of ending Maicon’s career all those years ago will encourage him to make the switch.
Fred
Why not make it a trio of signings from Man United this summer?
To be perfectly honest, we could have picked solely United players here and no-one would have batted an eyelid.
But of all the high-earning, low-performing Red Devils currently in operation at Old Trafford, Fred is probably the most obviously terrible.
Neymar
Ah, Neymar. The football brat to end all football brats.
Inter would need to really break the bank to get the Brazilian to Milan, but it’d be worth it. Imagine a forward trident of Neymar-Lukaku-Sanchez – there wouldn’t be a fullback tracked anywhere in Italy for months.
What’s more, signing Neymar would bring a legion of adoring Twitter-bots ready to step in and defend every single thing he and his team do, which could only be good for morale.
Tiémoué Bakayoko
Yes, he is actually still playing football.
Two years ago, much ado was made about the Frenchman’s £40m transfer from Monaco to Chelsea, but the midfielder proved to be about as useful as a chocolate bath-plug. So brutal were his performances that Chelsea elected to loan him out to AC Milan, where he played well briefly after a horrible start, but burned a lot of bridges with his conduct late in the season.
Still, that experience with the locale will stand to him and should help justify Inter making a move.
Find a full list of transfer specials over on paddypower.com