Inter hold talks with Liverpool over deal for £30m-rated Curtis Jones

Midfielder has been a target for Italians since January

Jones in the final year of his contract at Anfield

Inter are in talks with Liverpool over a deal for Curtis Jones, with the 25-year-old expected to leave his boyhood club should the Italian champions offer around £30m. Jones has been a target for Inter since January and was the subject of a failed €25m bid from them in June.

Liverpool valued their homegrown midfielder closer to €40m, but with Jones in the final year of his contract, and no sign of an agreement over an extension, that figure is unlikely to be reached.

Intermediaries representing Inter contacted Liverpool in July with a proposal to pay up to €35m (£30m) for Jones. Negotiations between the clubs commenced on Wednesday. No agreement has been reached, but should Inter go to €35m as has been suggested, Liverpool are likely to sanction Jones’s departure. Inter’s willingness to pay Tottenham €35m for Djed Spence last week is seen as a benchmark figure for the Jones deal.

Jones, who has played six times for England, has been at Liverpool since the age of nine, but has been unable to secure a regular first-team starting role and cut a frustrated figure at times last season under Arne Slot.

Andoni Iraola, Slot’s replacement as head coach, spoke at his unveiling about the importance of keeping the Toxteth-born midfielder and of having a local identity in his team. But Inter’s determined pursuit and the risk of losing the player on a free transfer next summer have also to be factored in by Liverpool.