Inter have spent months working on a deal to bring Liverpool's Georginio Wijnaldum to the club this summer, but have been forced to walk away from the table because of their financial struggles.
The owners of Inter, the Suning Group, were recently forced to shut down their Chinese Super League side Jiangsu Suning because of a severe drop in income over the past 12 months, and their ability to fulfil payments for the likes of Achraf Hakimi and Romelu Lukaku has come into question.
While Inter are not believed to have defaulted on any payments thus far, they are in a poor financial state and have started looking for emergency investors to help keep the team afloat in the short term.
These struggles are obviously going to take a toll on their transfer business for the upcoming summer. As noted by Calciomercato, Inter have been working tirelessly on a deal for Wijnaldum over the past few months - 90min first reported Inter's interest back in October 2020 - but they have been forced to pull the plug.
Inter had held several conversations with Wijnaldum's representatives and were hopeful of swooping in and sealing a deal without attracting much attention, and it is believed that the Dutchman was interested in a move to San Siro.
Things were progressing well, but Suning have since interjected and brought things to a halt, insisting that there are bigger financial priorities these days.
First and foremost, Suning want to clarify whether they are able to keep control of the club - a process which may well take months to stabilise - and they may even be forced to sell some players to stay afloat.
Hakimi has been mentioned as a possible casualty, with both Arsenal and Chelsea believed to be keeping a close eye on the goings-on at San Siro.
Inter are expected to retain their interest in Wijnaldum and hope to reignite talks somewhere down the line, but with the 30-year-old on the radar of other top teams like Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, there's an awareness that they might be forced to withdraw altogether.
Wijnaldum recently insisted that there was 'no news' about his future, adding that his sole focus at the minute is ensuring Liverpool play their way out of their recent slump.
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Source : 90min