Inter Pursues Curtis Jones as Liverpool Considers £30m Exit

Inter are pushing hard to prise Curtis Jones away from Liverpool, with talks under way over a deal that is expected to end the 25-year-old’s long spell at his boyhood club if the Italian champions reach a fee of around £30m.

The Serie A side have tracked Jones since January and already tested Liverpool’s resolve once this summer, seeing a €25m offer rejected in June. They have not gone away. If anything, the pursuit has hardened.

Liverpool initially set a higher bar. The club valued their homegrown midfielder at close to €40m, a figure that always looked ambitious with Jones entering the final year of his contract and no breakthrough on an extension. With that clock ticking, Liverpool’s stance has inevitably softened.

The breakthrough came via intermediaries. Representatives working on Inter’s behalf contacted Liverpool in July with a proposal that could climb to €35m (£30m). That number has quickly become the key reference point in negotiations, which formally began between the clubs on Wednesday.

Nothing is agreed yet. But the direction of travel is clear. Should Inter formally table the full €35m package that has been floated, Liverpool are expected to give the green light to Jones’s departure. Inside the Italian club, their recent willingness to commit €35m to sign Djed Spence from Tottenham is being used as a benchmark for what they can and should pay for Jones.

For Liverpool, the situation carries more than just financial weight. Jones, capped six times by England, joined the club at the age of nine and has long been held up as a symbol of the academy pathway, a local lad from Toxteth wearing the shirt he grew up dreaming about.

The romantic storyline has not quite matched the reality on the pitch. Jones has never fully nailed down a regular starting role and spent stretches of last season looking frustrated under Arne Slot as he drifted in and out of the XI.

That is why Andoni Iraola’s arrival felt significant. At his unveiling as Liverpool’s new head coach, Iraola spoke pointedly about the importance of keeping Jones and maintaining a strong local identity in his squad. It was a clear nod to the midfielder’s status beyond the numbers on a balance sheet.

Now those ideals are colliding with hard business. Inter’s persistence, the looming prospect of losing Jones for nothing next summer and the lure of a sizeable fee for a player on the fringes of the starting lineup are all being weighed at Anfield.

If Inter push to that €35m mark, Liverpool’s answer will reveal how much sentiment still counts in a squad being reshaped for a new era.