Inter Milan boss Luciano Spalletti has ruled out a move for Henrikh Mkhitaryan as the Manchester United midfielder is outside of the club's transfer budget.
The Serie A side had been touted as a possible destination for Mkhitaryan, who has seen his playing time at Old Trafford restricted since the end of October.
Reports emerged on Thursday afternoon suggesting that an agreement could not be struck between the two clubs over a loan move, however, with United wanting the Armenian off their books for good, and Spalletti has now all but put an end to the speculation.
"To keep saying we need to have a big transfer campaign, after the club has made it clear there are certain parameters to be respected, seems to me the best way to get hurt," he told reporters.
"You can say names — Mkhitaryan, [Javier] Pastore, [Simone] Verdi. But they'd cost €30m (£27m) and we don't have that. We need to go and play our game, show all of our quality again. We need to focus on individual quality and make it available to the team. It will be needed in a match such as this.
"The players need to know that I'm absolutely certain of their quality and I know that they have potential. Things have to be fixed on their own as they have been so far. In these times, we rediscover the strength of the group, the family."
Spalletti has also ruled out the prospect of cashing in on certain star names, including Man United target Ivan Perisic.
Daniel Lewis
