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Inter Milan’s opening salvo for Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones has been swatted away. The Italian club tabled a €25 million bid for the 25-year-old, and Liverpool’s response was essentially “try again.”
The Reds are reportedly holding out for something closer to £35 million, roughly €41 million, which puts a significant gap between the two clubs’ valuations. That’s not a rounding error. That’s a 64% premium over what Inter put on the table.
Why Liverpool can afford to wait
Jones still has a contract running until June 2027. In football economics, that’s leverage. A player with multiple years left on his deal gives the selling club the luxury of saying no, and Liverpool is clearly willing to exercise that luxury.
This isn’t Inter’s first swing at this particular pitch, either. The club previously submitted a loan-to-buy proposal back in January 2026, valued at approximately £34.6 million. Liverpool turned that one down too.
An even earlier approach, reportedly around €20 million, also went nowhere.
Jones is a homegrown product, someone who came through Liverpool’s academy system. Clubs tend to demand a premium for players they developed from scratch, partly as a matter of principle and partly because the books look very good when your cost basis is essentially zero.
Jones appears open to leaving
The complicating factor for Liverpool is that Jones himself has reportedly shown a willingness to explore life away from Anfield. He has resisted entering into new contract negotiations with the club, which is the universal footballer signal for “I’m listening to other offers.”
Inter, for their part, are expected to come back with an improved offer. Reports suggest the next bid could include resale clauses, a sweetener that Liverpool has been seeking as part of any deal structure. Resale clauses let the selling club take a percentage of any future transfer fee, essentially maintaining a financial stake in the player’s career trajectory.
The fan token angle
Both Liverpool and Inter Milan operate fan tokens through the Chiliz-powered Socios platform. Fan tokens are essentially digital assets that give holders access to club-related polls, rewards, and engagement opportunities. Transfer windows tend to be their most active periods, and high-profile transfer sagas have historically generated spikes in trading volume and engagement for the tokens associated with both clubs involved.
No cryptocurrency is being used directly in the transfer negotiations. Liverpool’s broader relationship with financial services remains anchored by their long-standing shirt sponsorship deal with Standard Chartered. There was speculation back in 2022 about potential partnerships with crypto firms, but those never materialized into anything concrete.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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