News

According to a new report from Sporting Intelligence, Manchester City are the best paid team in the world. Their average first-team pay is higher than anyone in the NBA, NFL or MLB.

The average first-team wages at Man City are £5.2m per year, or £100,764 per week. That tops baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers whose stars earn £4.86m per year (£93,380 a week) on average.

The shocking part to me is that Inter are on this list. Of all teams worldwide! Despite failing to qualify for Europe, Inter are in 10th place, paying out an average wage of £4m per year or £76,923 a week. With Financial Fair Play coming into play, Inter cannot afford those types of wages. Especially compared to their Serie A rivals.

Veteran defender Javier Zanetti has signed a one-year contract extension with Inter Milan, the Italian Serie A club announced today. Zanetti has been with Inter since 1995 when he joined from Banfield in his native Argentina.

His deal was set to expire before the summer but Inter have shown faith in Zanetti despite him still being sidelined with an Achilles tendon injury.

“We spoke at length about my injury and we decided to do another year,” Zanetti told inter.it.

“Once again they’ve shown they believe in me and my passion for Inter. I hope I can repay their affection on the pitch.”

Dejan Stankovic is on the verge of rescinding his contract with Inter, claims Sky Sport Italia.

The 34-year-old still has a year left on his agreement, but he’s currently in talks with the club about terminating that deal 12 months ahead of schedule.

The Serbian international joined the Beneamata in January 2004, six months before his contract at Lazio was set to expire.

Stankovic struggled with fitness last season seeing as he made just three appearances for the outfit, totalling 124 minutes in Serie A.

Sky Sport Italia is reporting that Inter have turned down a €20m bid from Tottenham for midfielder Fredy Guarin.

Spurs have long shown an interest in Guarin and Alvaro Pereira, both specific targets for manager Andre Villas-Boas.

According to this report, Tottenham raised their proposal to €20m, around £17m, but the Nerazzurri rejected it.

However, the same sources suggest Inter hope to spark a bidding war and are prepared to listen to higher offers.

Colombian international Guarin turns 27 on June 30 and only joined Inter from Porto in January 2012. He arrived on loan for €1.5m and in May 2012 the club took up its option to make the move permanent for a further €11m.

Really interesting stuff from the website whoscored.com In a blog post,  Player Focus: Europe’s Top Dribblers by Frequency and Effectiveness they breakdown the dribbling effectiveness of players in the top European leagues, and Inter‘s Mateo Kovacic was right their with the best players in Europe.

Kovacic, who Inter signed in January, looks like an Inter star for years to come. In just 13 Serie A appearances Kivacic completed 78 dribbles, with a per game figure of 4.38 only bettered by Franck Ribery in Europe’s top 5 leagues. The 19 year old, however, had an exceptional success rate of 73.1% compared to the Bayern winger’s 50.8%, and the Croatian is emerging as one of the hottest prospects around.

Fredy Guarin has rejected transfer speculation that he has played his last game for Italian outfit Inter.

The Colombian international is being linked with a move away from San Siro following the arrival of Walter Mazzarri as boss.

“I won’t be leaving,” the former Porto midfielder told Futbol Total when quizzed about his future. “I will be staying at Inter.

“I still have a lot to learn and I only joined Inter about a year ago anyway…

“Inter are a great club with a great squad. I am playing my football in Milan with the intention of making history.”

Inter Milan sports director Marco Branca says that the club have not received any offers for goalkeeper Samir Handanovic.

Handanovic has been linked with Barcelona in recent weeks but Branca says they have not received any bids so far.

Speaking to Italian website Libero, Branca said:

“Offers for Handanovic? He is one of the best goalkeepers in Europe, but there was nothing concrete. I know very well Andoni Zubizaretta (Barcelona sports director) and we have never talked about any negotiations.”

Interesting what Branca does not say. He doesn’t say that Handanovic will not be sold. He simply says that he has not received an offer for him.

More from Inter‘s new coach Walter Mazzarri’s first press conference

You said that you want to assess the players and see how they react to the workload in the first two weeks of training camp, then possibly ask the club for reinforcements. Don’t you risk not having your final squad until very late?

On Thursday, new Inter Milan coach Walter Mazzarri was formally presented to the media. In a wide ranging press conference, Mazzarri touched on a number of topics. One of them was why he left Napoli for Inter.

Given that Napoli are going to be playing in the Champions League, and given the interest Roma showed in you, why did you choose Inter?

“I’d like to clarify this point because sometimes you hear things that just aren’t true, even though I felt I’d been clear about it. For a start, my decision to leave Napoli was in no way connected to anything else. I decided to bring an end to my four years at Napoli at the start of the season, as you all know.