Liverpool Firm on Curtis Jones Amid Inter's Pursuit
Inter Milan have made their move for Curtis Jones. Liverpool have made their position just as clear.
The Italian champions, encouraged by how talks have developed in recent weeks, are ready to go as high as £30 million for the midfielder, according to the Daily Mail. Liverpool’s response is blunt: not enough. Inside Anfield, the 25-year-old is rated at a minimum of £35m, and that internal valuation is driving everything.
That £5m gap is not a rounding error. It is the negotiation.
Liverpool have already knocked back an offer of £21.75m from Inter, a bid that underlined the distance between admiration and agreement. Inter can talk up their interest, they can push the numbers, but they will not get Jones on the cheap, not with one year left on his contract and not in this market.
There is no sense of a fire sale. Liverpool are listening, not begging.
Inter’s long look at Jones
Inter’s pursuit is not a late summer whim. Sporting director Piero Ausilio went on record earlier in the window, openly name-checking the Liverpool man.
“Curtis Jones – we are paying attention to him. We didn't hide. We understand what the developments will be,” he said.
Those words were not for show. They framed a genuine, ongoing chase, and the latest signals from Italy suggest that interest has not cooled. If anything, Inter are testing how firm Liverpool’s line really is.
So far, that line has not moved.
Liverpool’s bigger rebuild picture
This is not just about one player. It is about what Liverpool want to be under Andoni Iraola.
The club are in talks with Paris Saint-Germain over Bradley Barcola, while also scanning the market for reinforcements in other areas. At the same time, enquiries have come in for several of the club’s younger faces after eye-catching performances on the USA tour.
- Luke Chambers
- Lewis Koumas
- Calum Scanlon
- Ifeanyi Ndukwe
have all drawn interest. The message is obvious: this is a squad in motion, with decisions to be made at every level, from senior starters to the emerging core.
Jones sits right in the middle of that picture.
Competition in midfield remains fierce. Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Florian Wirtz are all prominent options in the central areas, and Iraola is not short of technical quality or tactical variety. Jones has often been the next man in, the player who can slide into different roles without disrupting the structure.
That has a value of its own.
Why Liverpool’s stance is so stubborn
Homegrown. Champions League experience. Tactically flexible. In his prime years.
Those four factors shape Liverpool’s £35m stance as much as any spreadsheet. Jones is the kind of player who makes a 60-game season survivable. He may not dominate the headlines, but he fills the gaps, covers the injuries, and keeps the level stable when the stars rotate.
Depth wins trophies. It also costs money.
Liverpool know replacing a player with Jones’ profile is not straightforward, especially under homegrown quotas. Sell him now, and you are not just losing a squad option; you are creating another hole to fill in a window where plenty of other issues already demand attention.
Inter’s £30m push recognises his quality. Liverpool’s refusal to fold recognises his importance.
If Jones wants a bigger role elsewhere, that would be understandable. Careers are short, and the guarantee of regular minutes is powerful. But for Liverpool, sentiment cannot trump strategy. Any exit has to pay properly for his ability, his status and the difficulty of finding another local midfielder who can be trusted in high-pressure moments.
Right now, £35m feels like the starting point, not the compromise.
Inter have made their play. The question now is simple: do they believe in Jones enough to cross Liverpool’s line, or does this stand-off drag on into the final weeks of the window?
