Curtis Jones Set to Join Inter Milan from Liverpool
Curtis Jones has already made his choice. Now Liverpool and Inter Milan have to make the numbers work.
The 25-year-old midfielder has privately accepted that his Liverpool career is drawing to a close and has committed to joining the Serie A champions, with only a gap in valuation holding up the move. Inter have put around €25m (£21m) on the table. Liverpool are holding out for closer to €30m (£25m), a figure they believe reflects his quality, experience and age.
For once, this is not a player torn between options. Jones has had Premier League suitors – Aston Villa, Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest have all checked in on his situation in recent months – but he has been clear with those around him: he wants Inter, and he wants Italy.
Inter push, Liverpool dig in
Inter see leverage in the calendar. Jones is heading into the final year of his contract at Anfield, and the Italian champions are reluctant to significantly raise their offer for a player who could, in theory, walk away for nothing in 12 months.
Liverpool read the same contract, but with a very different emotion.
They have already been burned. Ibrahima Konate and Trent Alexander-Arnold have both left on free transfers in the last year, and club sources insist there is no appetite to lose another asset for nothing. The stance is firm: they will push for a fee closer to their valuation, even if that ultimately means a compromise somewhere between the two current positions.
Inter, for their part, believe the contract situation weakens Liverpool’s hand and are content to play a patient game. The negotiations are described as “locked”, but not broken. Both sides know the player wants the move. That usually tells in the end.
Chiesa’s Italian sales pitch
Inside the Liverpool dressing room, Jones has already been getting a taste of what awaits him.
Federico Chiesa, who made the same journey from Serie A to Merseyside, has been a vocal advocate of the move. The former Juventus forward has painted an attractive picture of life in Italy and of Inter as a stage fit for Jones’ abilities.
Speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport, Chiesa revealed: “Jones just asked me what life is like in Italy. I told him it’s great and the weather is better than Liverpool, which, aside from that, is a special place.
“Jones is really strong technically. Inter are right to think about him.”
Those words have only strengthened the growing feeling around the player that his future lies at San Siro, trading the Kop for the Curva Nord and becoming the latest Englishman to test himself in Serie A.
Liverpool plan for life after Jones
Inside Anfield, there is no sense of shock. Earlier in his career, Liverpool would have preferred to build around Jones, but there is now a recognition that he wants a new challenge and that the club is entering a different phase under Andoni Iraola.
Midfield planning is already well advanced. Liverpool have been assessing several options as part of a broader squad rebuild, aware that Jones’ departure is more a matter of “when” than “if”. The aim is clear: avoid another free transfer exit, bank a respectable fee, and recycle it quickly into Iraola’s evolving system.
For Jones, the picture is even simpler. His focus is on getting the deal over the line, swapping Merseyside for Milan and stepping into a title-winning dressing room that expects to compete deep into the Champions League.
The decision is made. Now it is up to Liverpool and Inter to decide how much that decision is worth.
