Manchester United have been served a blow in their pursuit of defensive target Milan Skriniar as the centre-back has revealed he is close to signing a new contract with Inter.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side have made signing a world class centre-back a priority at the end of the season and Skriniar is one of many players being considered by the Premier League giants.
Skriniar only joined Inter last summer but has quickly developed into one of the most sought after centre-backs in Europe, even attracting interest from Barcelona.
However, the Slovakia international has dented United’s chances of signing him after revealing he is on the verge of penning improved terms with Inter.
“We’re close to an agreement, everyone knows I want to stay here,” he told Tuttosport, via Football Italia.
“It’d be nice to win a trophy here: we’ve gone without one for too long and everyone wants one. I also haven’t won anything yet. When Spalletti said I was worth €100m, I didn’t want to believe it.
“On the contrary, I denied that he’d said it. Certainly it’s nice to hear something like that, but the money doesn’t matter. What matters is what you do on the field.
“We have a duty to try to win the Europa League. It’s not the Champions League, but it’s still an important tournament.”
Of Serie A players to have made at least 10 starts this season, only Sassuolo defender Marlon Santos (93.5%) has a better pass accuracy than Skriniar (93.2%).
Furthermore, only Marcelo Brozovic (83.4) and Kalidou Koulibaly (74.2) - another United target - average more passes per game than Skriniar (68.5) in Serie A this term.
