‘No one told Icardi to stay’ – Inter director Marrotta ‘irritated’ by Wanda Nara comments

Inter director Beppe Marrotta has expressed his “irritation” at Mauro Icardi’s agent Wanda Nara’s recent comments suggesting the striker had been invited to stay at the club.

Since a public falling out between the player’s camp and the club’s hierarchy, Icardi has been stripped of the captaincy, dropped from the first team and had his shirt number given to new signing Romelu Lukaku.

All signs pointed to an exit for the Argentine striker, but with the transfer deadline drawing nearer, no new club has yet been found and Nara – Icardi’s wife and agent – suggested on Sunday that the club president had told the player to stay put.

“Right now [Conte] is not letting [Icardi] play but maybe he will,” Nara said on Mediaset TV show Tiki Taka.

“I’m not waiting for anything. Maybe someone told him to stay. Who? Maybe the one who runs the club.

“We have many friends in Naples. It’s true – he has said no to every destination that is not Inter.

“Everyone has known his choice since the start of the summer and that is the case for any team that has shown interest. In my view, at the end of the day, he will remain at Inter.

“He doesn’t believe it’s over at Inter. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I do know his words when the transfer market opened. He has stayed consistent.

“There were offers that no player in the world would have turned down, but he said no for Inter.”

However, club CEO Marotta has refuted those claims and has admitted his frustration with Nara’s comments.

“We greeted Wanda Nara’s comments with a pinch of irritation, both for the timing and the method,” Marotta told DAZN.

“I can also categorically deny that someone at the club told Icardi to stay at Inter, especially not President Steven Zhang.

“The strategy Inter have taken is precise and we communicated it clearly in the right time-frame. We’ll continue like this to the end and nobody at Inter can change this common approach that is shared by everyone.”