Several Options For Inter's Central Defense As Barella Returns To Training

Written By Onyeka Daniel

This year’s summer transfer window is officially closed and for current Serie A champions, Inter Milan, while they only brought in Tomas Palacios, the club is already setting plans in motion to beef up their defence in the summer of 2025, with several possible solutions.

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For Simone Inzaghi, he has some in-team solution that he can apply, while the club management is looking at options in the transfer market, especially for players that they can get for free or for a small fee. For the case of the manager, it is only right that he starts to think about it in-house solutions.

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This might come handy during the season, given the number of matches that the team will play. For the right side of the defense, they’ve Benjamin Pavard and Yann Bisseck, while for the left, there’s Alessandro Bastoni, and new buy, Palacios.

And with the earlier return of Tajon Buchanan from injury, Carlos Augusto can even be drafted to that position, hence, Inzaghi is reportedly thinking of fielding Palacios in the central position that has the aging Francesco Acerbi and the injury prone Stefan De Vrij.

Also, Bastoni can play in that position. During Italy’s 3-1 win over France in the Nations League encounter, Bastoni played in that position and helped to keep the rampaging France attack quiet. For the club, there are several names that they’re exploring.

From Giorgio Scalvini, Jaja Bijol, Perr Schuurs to Virgil van Dijk and Jonathan Tah, to replace the 37-year-old Acerbi. For the time being, the former Lazio defender is still up to the task. However, according to a report from Tuttosport, the Nerazzurri understand that they must find a successor for him soon.

There are a couple names within Serie A that Inter would consider as replacements for Acerbi. One is Torino’s Schuurs. The former Ajax defender has a very similar profile to Acerbi, and would be an ideal candidate for marshalling the penalty area at the centre of the back three.

While Atalanta’s Scalvini remains a huge favorite, his possible price tag (starting from €50m) will be a huge turn off, hence Bijol will be a more realistic target. The 25-year-old was pretty impressive with Slovenia at the Euros this summer.

He effectively marked big name strikers such as Harry Kane, Aleksandar Mitrovic, and Cristiano Ronaldo. Therefore, it is not too surprising to see Inter’s interest in Bijol emerge. This summer, other clubs also showed interest in signing the Slovenian. And Inter did not look to anticipate the competition, due to having other priorities.

But he stayed at Udinese in the end. The Friulani could very well sell Bijol next summer, though. They will not, however, let the player go for cheap.According to reports, Udinese will ask for around €20 million to sell Bijol. He or the 20-year-old Scalvini could be a solution for well over a decade in Inter’s defense.

And then, there is the prospect of a free transfer signing. Inter are certainly always on the hunt for such deals. PSV defender Olivier Boscagli will be available on a free transfer next summer. He is already on Inter’s radar. And the Nerazzurri are also big fans of Bayer Leverkusen defender Jonathan Tah.

He has already confirmed that he will leave his current club when his contract expires at the end of next June. Inter would have plenty of competition to sign Tah, however – including German giants Bayern Munich. Then, there could be one more highly ambitious target for Inter.

Should Dutch international Virgil van Dijk not sign an extension with Liverpool, the Nerazzurri could make their move. Ahead of the return of club football this weekend, there is a good news for the club as Nicolo Barella returns to training after undergoing an operation.

According to a report from Gazzetta dello Sport, the midfielder is already back in training after making a recovery from surgery earlier in the international break. The Italy midfielder took this international break as an opportunity to undergo a nose operation.

The procedure was not to correct any sort of sporting injury. Rather, it was to correct a problem with his nasal septum and allow him to breathe more comfortably. This followed an agreement between Inter and Italy medical staff that the break was a perfect opportunity for the operation.

The surgery that he underwent was fairly minor and non-invasive. Therefore, the recovery procedure has not been a long one. However, he has not been able to train with teammates for a few days, given the risk of contact that would cause problems for the healing.

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Initially, the plan had been for Barella to return to training.However, according to the report, the former Cagliari midfielder has decided to cut his recovery short by a day. Hence, Barella is already back in full training today with his teammates.

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