Inter Milan Near £30m Deal for Midfielder Jones

Inter Milan are moving hard and fast for Jones, and this time it feels different.

BBC Sport report that the Italian champions are closing in on a deal worth around £30m for the 25-year-old midfielder, with talks between the clubs now at an advanced stage. The final details are still being thrashed out, but the mood in Italy is that this one is heading towards the finish line.

It has taken persistence. And patience.

Inter have chased Jones all summer, having already been knocked back once. In June, Liverpool rejected a verbal offer of £21.7m, holding firm to a valuation closer to £35m for a player with one year left on his contract and valuable homegrown status. At that stage, the gap between the clubs looked sizeable.

Weeks of dialogue have dragged that gap down. Inter’s latest push has brought their proposal into the region Liverpool have been waiting for, roughly mirroring the £30m package the Nerazzurri recently paid Tottenham to land Djed Spence. That figure has become the benchmark for any Jones deal.

Liverpool have not blinked easily. They have treated Jones as an asset shaped by years of top-flight experience and academy investment, and have been clear all summer that they would only sell if the price matched that reality. The stance has never been about forcing him out, but about making any departure worthwhile.

Inter’s interest is not new. They tried to prise him away in January with a loan offer including an option to buy. Liverpool dismissed that approach quickly, unwilling to lose a homegrown midfielder on a deal that lacked guarantees.

This time, the dynamic is different.

For Jones, a move to San Siro would close a long, emotional chapter. He joined Liverpool’s academy at nine, grew up under the club’s badge, and eventually broke through under Jurgen Klopp in 2019. Across 228 appearances, he has supplied big moments and big goals, a local lad living the dream on the Anfield stage.

Yet last season left him at a crossroads. He featured 49 times in all competitions, but only 18 of those outings came as Premier League starts. In a reshaped midfield under Arne Slot, he struggled to nail down a permanent starting role, often drifting in and out of the XI.

Inside the club, there is still admiration for him. New head coach Andoni Iraola is understood to want him to stay and fight for his place. But contract talks have stalled, and Jones is increasingly drawn to the idea of a fresh challenge at Inter, where a leading role in a title-chasing side beckons.

The result is a transfer that now feels less like a shock and more like an inevitability. If the final details fall into place, a boyhood Red will swap Anfield for the Curva Nord — and Liverpool will be forced to answer a blunt question: who replaces the minutes, the versatility and the homegrown heartbeat Jones leaves behind?