We are six weeks away from the opening of another transfer window and just like clockwork, the Wesley Sneijder to Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala rumours have started up again. But Sneijder is not leaving Inter in January, at least according to his agent.
Sneijder has not played for Inter since he hobbled off with a thigh injury against Chievo in late September, and it has not gone unnoticed by Inter fans that Inter have played better this season without Sneijder than with him.
Reports in Russia claim that Guus Hiddink was prepared to try and lure Sneijder to big-spending Anzhi after news broke earlier this week that Inter had banned Sneijder from using Twitter.
But his agent, Soren Lerby, moved to dispel talk of a January switch to Russia, telling calciomercato.com:
“Wesley doesn’t want to go to Anzhi. I feel that these are just rumours and I don’t know where they’ve come from.
“At this point you should probably ask Anzhi and Guus Hiddink about it. It’s the first time I’ve heard anything about it because Wes is very happy at Inter and has a great relationship with everyone.”
Sneijder has had several opportunities to move to Anzhi in the past and has turned them all down because he would rather live in Milan than Moscow. So I don’t see this deal happening.
The dilemma for Inter is that Sneijder is by far their highest paid player. Getting his wages off the books would free up a lot of cash that Andrea Stramaccioni could use to buy players that better fit his system.
The challenge for Sneijder and his agent, is that Sneijder is a shadow of the player that helped Inter win the treble in 2010, and Holland reach the World Cup Finals that same summer.
Today he is an out-of-form, highly paid veteran with a poor injury record. There are not a lot of teams looking to sign that type of player!
