Man Utd: Fernandes ‘wanted’ signing Liverpool ‘sent private jet for’; PL rivals ‘threw in £29m offer’

An Inter Milan star has claimed that Bruno Fernandes “wanted” Manchester United to sign him, while he was also “close” to Arsenal.

30-year-old Piotr Zielinski progressed through the ranks at Serie A outfit Udinese but has spent most of his career at rivals Napoli.

The Poland international made over 350 appearances for the Italian giants across all competitions before he left the club upon the expiry of his contract in the summer.

Liverpool and West Ham were among the clubs linked with Zielinski last season , but he eventually opted to join Inter Milan on a free transfer.

Man Utd were busy in the summer as they spent around £185m to sign Joshua Zirkzee, Leny Yoro, Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui and Manuel Ugarte.

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The Red Devils were in the market for a new midfielder in the summer, but Ugarte was always their favoured option.

Zielinski was not a like-for-like alternative as he’s often used in a more advanced role. Despite this, he claims Fernandes “wanted” him to join Man Utd.

Fernandes previously played with the Inter Milan star at Udinese and the two players are “still in touch”.

Zielinski has also revealed that he previously came “close” to signing for other Premier League clubs.

“At one time, Bruno Fernandes wanted me to end up in Manchester. We are still in touch, we talk quite often – we played together in Udinese, and in one of the matches we practically single-handedly beat Milan,” Zielinski said.

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“As for West Ham – it was also close, De Laurentiis was also already convinced about the offer, they threw in €35 million (£29m).

“There was already looking around for medical care for my wife and child, where I was going to live. Coach [Luciano] Spalletti took me aside once and asked me what was going on, and I said I would rather stay, fight for the championship. He said I want you to stay and that it would be the best version of Zielinski. I stayed because I didn’t really feel this London either.”

He added, “Liverpool sent a private jet to Florence for me and I flew with my agent Bartlomiej Bolek – we drove up to [Jurgen] Klopp’s house afterwards, we had a great conversation. It was the first time I had flown like that. He said that for him I was a mix of [Ilkay] Gundogan and [Cesc] Fabregas.

“We watched a Premier League match at his place on his giant TV, I had never seen anything like that either. Arsenal were closer to realisation than Barcelona because De Laurentiis didn’t want a few boys from La Masia in return.”