Liverpool's Summer Rebuild: Inter Sets Deadline for Curtis Jones
Liverpool’s summer rebuild has barely begun, but the clock is already ticking on one of its most delicate calls.
Inter set Liverpool a Jones deadline
Inter Milan have moved from admiration to impatience over Curtis Jones. The Serie A champions want the Liverpool midfielder in the door and on the grass by mid-July, with Gazzetta dello Sport reporting that the club’s hierarchy have set an internal target to have him available in Germany from July 16.
They know the player is on board. TEAMtalk revealed earlier this month that Jones has already given the green light to a move, attracted by Inter’s project and the chance of a fresh start abroad. Inter, though, are trying to pull off what they see as smart business: a deal in the region of €20m for a 23-year-old with high-level Premier League and European experience.
Liverpool see it very differently.
With Ibrahima Konaté and Andy Robertson already gone on free transfers to Real Madrid and Tottenham respectively, and Mohamed Salah expected to depart for Saudi Arabia or another destination after making clear earlier this year that his Anfield chapter is closing, the club cannot afford to undersell one of their remaining valuable assets. Jones is homegrown, versatile, and still has room to grow.
So the stance is firm. Liverpool are understood to be holding out for closer to €30m, and they want a percentage of any future resale built into the agreement. Inter may feel they have leverage – Jones’ contract is said to have just a year left, and the Italian club are already overloaded with around 20 players under contract – but Liverpool know the market and know what an English midfielder in his prime years is worth.
For now, it is a standoff dressed up as negotiation. Inter are “confident in the player’s desire”, according to the Italian report, and are prepared to wait, but only up to a point. With six of their men – Manuel Akanji, Hakan Calhanoglu, Luka Sucic, Bonny, Lautaro Martínez and Marcus Thuram – away at the World Cup, new coach Cristian Chivu still expects to open camp with a sizeable group. The message from Milan is clear: they want Jones among them when preparations properly kick in.
Liverpool, juggling exits and arrivals, must decide how hard to push the price before that deadline turns from pressure into a missed opportunity.
Ayari keeps his distance from Anfield noise
While Inter press Liverpool for a decision, another name linked with Anfield is doing everything he can to ignore the noise.
Yasin Ayari, the Brighton midfielder who has impressed on international duty with Sweden, has been mentioned in recent weeks as a potential Liverpool target. His performance in his country’s opening match of the tournament has only sharpened that focus.
Ayari, though, is refusing to be drawn into the transfer swirl.
“I’m in the World Cup bubble, as they say. I don’t have a clue about anything,” he told Fotbollskanalen when asked about reported talks with Liverpool. “Everyone else is taking care of it for me. I’m just here and focusing on the World Cup.”
It is a classic tournament stance, but a telling one. While Liverpool weigh up how to reshape a midfield that could lose Jones and has already undergone significant change in recent windows, Ayari is concentrating on his own immediate stage.
Back at club level, Brighton have already dipped into his past, signing Zadok Yohanna from Ayari’s old side AIK Fotboll. That move gives Ayari a different kind of responsibility.
“It will be fun. I haven’t seen much of him in the Swedish league, but it will be fun to start and see how he goes,” he said. “I will take care of him, but many people will take care of him. It’s a family club, so it should go well.”
Those words underline why clubs like Liverpool are watching Brighton’s recruitment so closely. Young, technically sharp midfielders, comfortable on the ball and grounded off it, are exactly what top sides want as they refresh ageing cores.
For Liverpool, the picture is brutally simple. Lose Jones and they not only need to replace his minutes and profile, they must also manage the financial and strategic implications of another key departure. Whether Ayari ends up part of that solution remains to be seen.
What is certain is this: Inter’s deadline for Jones, Salah’s looming exit, and the quiet tracking of emerging midfielders like Ayari point to a decisive summer at Anfield, one that will shape what Liverpool look and feel like for years, not just for the coming season.
