Curtis Jones Joins Inter Milan in £30m Deal
Inter Milan have landed Curtis Jones from Liverpool in a £30m (€35m) deal, closing the book on a 16-year Anfield story and opening up a fresh set of midfield dilemmas for Andoni Iraola.
Liverpool will bank a guaranteed £25.7m, with a further £4.28m tied to add-ons, while a 10 per cent sell-on clause keeps them financially tethered to Jones’ future. Inter, already raiding England this summer, make him their third Three Lions signing of the window after John Stones and Djed Spence, as Cristian Chivu continues to reshape his squad with Premier League pedigree.
End of an era at Anfield
Jones joined Liverpool at the age of nine. He leaves as a 23-year-old father, a double Premier League winner and a player who has lived through almost every stage of the club’s modern revival.
His first-team debut came in the 2018/19 campaign. From there, he clocked up 228 appearances and 22 goals, lifting two Premier League titles, two Carabao Cups, the Club World Cup and the FA Cup, and standing on the losing side in the 2022 Champions League final. For a local academy product, it is a medal collection most professionals never get close to.
The timing, though, told its own story. Jones had entered the final year of his contract, and Liverpool, aggressively reshaping under Iraola, chose clarity over sentiment.
The midfielder marked his exit with an emotional farewell, stressing how he had arrived “as a kid with a dream” and was leaving “as a man with a family of my own”, thanking academy staff, coaches, team-mates, club employees and supporters before signing off with a simple “YNWA”.
Iraola’s midfield puzzle
Iraola did not want to lose him. The head coach made that clear, while immediately pointing towards 19-year-old Trey Nyoni as a player ready to step up.
Jones featured 49 times under former boss Arne Slot last season, 34 of those in a bruising, failed Premier League title defence. He juggled roles alongside Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch, and even filled in as a makeshift right-back when needed. Versatility was his currency.
The new era looks different. Iraola intends to build around Florian Wirtz as a specialist No 10 in a 4-2-3-1, a shift that squeezes the numbers in deeper midfield. Szoboszlai, Mac Allister and Gravenberch are now effectively fighting for two slots in front of the back four.
The Basque coach still has Wataru Endo’s experience to lean on and Nyoni’s exuberance to test. Nyoni has caught the eye in pre-season, and Jones’ departure clears an even clearer pathway to minutes. Yet the equation is not closed. Liverpool now have £30m to play with, and there is every chance that money is recycled straight back into another midfield option if the right profile appears.
Wide priorities and transfer tension
Jones’ exit does not change Liverpool’s main transfer obsession. The club have been locked on to wide reinforcements all summer.
Two bids have already gone in for Brighton’s Yankuba Minteh, the latest touching £60m, and both have been rejected. The stance from the south coast has been stubborn; Liverpool’s interest has been just as firm.
They have also pursued Paris Saint-Germain winger Bradley Barcola, a player the European champions value at a staggering £145m. That figure underlines the scale of the challenge if Liverpool want to turn admiration into a concrete deal.
Cody Gakpo, meanwhile, has emerged as a target for Spurs. Liverpool’s position is blunt: as things stand, they do not want to sell. In a summer of churn, some pillars are being kept in place.
Inter’s English core grows
For Inter, this is a clear statement of intent. Chivu is not just adding depth; he is building a spine with Premier League experience and England internationals at its heart.
Stones brings authority at the back, Spence offers energy down the flank, and now Jones arrives with a blend of technical quality, pressing intensity and big-game experience. At 23, he also fits the profile of a player who can grow in value, making that 10 per cent sell-on clause a potentially smart piece of business for Liverpool down the line.
Jones walks away from Anfield having “lived the dream”, as he put it. Inter now hand him a new one: San Siro nights, Serie A title races, Champions League knockouts in different colours.
Liverpool, stripped of another long-serving academy face, push on with a remodel that is gathering pace. The money is in, the gap in midfield is real, and the clock on the window is ticking. Who they choose to trust with that £30m – and with Jones’ old minutes – will say plenty about what this new Liverpool really wants to become.
