Chelsea and Liverpool have joined Newcastle United in the race to sign Inter Milan midfielder Nicolo Barella, according to reports.
Barella has emerged as one of the best midfielders in Europe over the past couple of seasons and he shone for Inter Milan as they reached the Champions League final in 2022/23.
The Italy international grabbed nine goals and ten assists in his 52 appearances across all competitions in 22/23 and he is being heavily linked with a potential move to the Premier League.
The 26-year-old has been consistently linked with Liverpool in recent months as it is known that they are in the market for two or three midfielders this summer.
But earlier this week, it was reported by The Telegraph that Newcastle are ‘closing in’ on the signing of Barella from Inter Milan.
They are of the belief that Barella would cost £50m and Newcastle’s ‘other main target’ is Leicester City standout James Maddison.
Transfer guru Fabrizio Romano has since stated via his YouTube channel that Liverpool have ‘always been following’ Barella and they are monitoring his situation.
But according to Italian outlet Corriere Dello Sport, Chelsea are trying to beat their Premier League rivals in the fight to sign Barella.
The Blues have ‘proposed an exchange’ that would see them sign Barella move to Stamford Bridge and Romelu Lukaku head in the other direction.
Inter Milan ‘did not respond’ to this proposal as they instead ‘postponed discussions over to a new appointment’.
But it is said that the Italian giants are only interested in ‘monster offers’ for Barella, while they are keen on another loan deal for Lukaku and they ‘don’t intend to take other paths’.
Inter Milan will ‘have to listen’ if ‘an offer of a certain size’ arrives for Barella and it is claimed that ‘it must be in cash and even greater than €70 million [£60m]’.
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Romano meanwhile is insistent that £50m is absolutely not enough” for Inter Milan to sell Barella.
“What I can tell you is that, for sure, there is interest from Newcastle and for sure Eddie Howe is a big fan of Nicolo Barella, they would love to sign Barella,” Romano said.
“But they also know that at the moment for Inter £50m is absolutely not enough to sell Barella. They extended his contract, it was a few months ago.
“And so the idea of Inter is to keep Barella, no chance to sell Barella for £50m. They want way more than this to be tempted.
“So let’s see if Newcastle will try to improve their proposal or do something serious in the next days. For sure, they like the player, for sure they want the player but £50m, at the moment, is not enough.”
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