I told you that would be the headline right HERE so no crying that I wasn’t being fair. Yes, I do feel smart now. Actually it wasn’t just Duncan, no no no. It was Duncan and Bardi! That’s right folks, the rumor was that it was going to be one or the other of the best Inter prospects to come down the pike at their respective positions in quite some time as… drumroll please… makeweight for Isla! That’s right folks, a wingback who had negligible European experience at Udinese and spent almost the entirety of his time as a co-property of Juventus on the training table is worth 4x Duncan, who probably has more meaningful European experience as part of the Next Gen winning Inter Primavera. Ditto Bardi. Now, I am not the highest supporter of Isla or of dealing with Udinese for their players, so take what I say with a grain of salt… Inter, let him and Basta go. They are not worth the wasted time/money dealing with either Udinese, who are worthless to negotiate with, or Juventus who are… well enough said, yeah?

Rumor, or pundit take your pick, has it that Inter has turned down all deals that include losing Bardi or Duncan. Fine. At least something sensible has happened this summer. Now I wonder if they are going to do the next sensible thing – bring in Donati and let him compete. He’s just turned 23 years old, I think. He’s spent the last 3 years in Serie B, the last 2 as a main contributor to his teams. He’s probably the second best Inter defender in the U21’s right now right after Caldirola – excuse me, that’s Captain of the Italy U21 team Luca Caldirola. It’s time to find out what we got. And the best part – it won’t cost us a dime.

Things are accelerating on the Deki/Chivu front. There is a heavy rumor that one or both are meeting with the club’s Money Man to talk about their contracts.

Inter are going into a joint venture with Verona for defender Mihai Balasa. He’s going to stay in Verona – I don’t know how long yet – but it’s going to be on Inter’s dime. He’s 18 years old. Another defender, 23 year old Marcos Rojo, an Argentine, is apparently coming to Inter from Sporting Club de Portugal. I know nothing first hand about either player other than I think Rojo is an International.

There is much debate about Nainggolan. I don’t really care if the team gets him or not, I just don’t want to read that we permanently gave up Duncan or Longo or Bardi or any of the U21s for him. Personally, I don’t know why this negotiation is dragging out so long, unless one of the U21s is involved, that would actually make more sense. Otherwise, I don’t see why Roma haven’t taken him already. Don’t get me wrong, I thing Nainggolan is a fine player, but we really needed him last summer, don’t you think? Wasn’t there a bigger need last summer for a midfielder with Obi on the shelf and we not knowing what Duncan is? But he’s a good player for Cagliari. I just hope that he doesn’t stop playing when/if he gets paid.

FORZA INTER