Report: Christian Eriksen deal with Inter agreed in principle; Spurs look to sell in January

It looks like we’ve reached the end of the most depressing transfer saga in recent memory of Tottenham Hotspur.

The worst kept secret in football has been Christian Eriksen’s desire to leave Spurs for a new challenge, as he said just a couple of days removed from the Champions League final back in June. A move never materialized in the Summer transfer window which left three options on the table: Move in January, Move in Summer on a free anywhere or a pre-contract with a continental club. It looks like Eriksen is taking option three, according to the Times (£).

Christian Eriksen is a step closer to leaving Tottenham Hotspur after reaching an agreement in principle with Inter Milan worth about £100,000 a week after tax.

The Denmark playmaker has been offered a four-year contract to move to the Italian club, where he would be one of the highest-paid players.

Italy has a new tax law in place that makes Serie A a very attractive option for professional footballers. A good breakdown of this law can be found with this article from GFNI.

This is the new reality for Serie A and their clubs. A couple of new tax laws have enabled football clubs in Italy to flex their financial might and acquire top flight footballers the league so desperately needs. In 2017, The New Resident Regime law began in Italy. This allowed Italian businesses to attract the best individuals with high net worth’s and give them the chance to pay a flat tax rate of €100,000 on their sourced income, no matter how much the individual earns. This new law would essentially knock out the 23-43% tax rate that residents currently pay. The 2019 Italian Budget Law was introduced to those individuals who hold foreign pensions and allow those to pay only 7% their foreign sourced income as opposed to the 23-43% an Italian resident would normally pay.

If that £100k/week number sounded low, it really isn’t thanks to this new law. Yes, Spurs were offering £200k/week, but that was pre-tax. According to Wikipedia, the tax code in England was updated to 45% on anything above £150,000 earned in a year in 2014. Eriksen can avoid the 43% taxation rate in Italy simply by paying that flat fee and then pocket the rest.

If this report is accurate, Spurs aren’t finished as the Times suggest the club are negotiating with Inter on a possible deal to send Eriksen there this window.

Tottenham want to sell him for about £20 million this month to prevent him leaving as a free agent in the summer and because of a perceived lack of effort on the pitch, highlighted by a poor display before being substituted in the 1-0 league defeat by Liverpool on Saturday.

Levy is trying hard to get something for the Danish international, and with Inter two points behind Juventus at the top of Serie A, bringing in Eriksen might be the splash they need to win the title.

As I stated in the lede, this is just depressing all around. Just eighteen months ago, we talked about how Eriksen wouldn’t go for less than £80m if Spurs had sold him that window. In hindsight, the club probably should have pulled the trigger then. Eriksen has been average at best since last January and putrid at his worst. His lackluster performance on Saturday could be summed up with “not giving a sh*t” and nobody would bat an eye. There was also a report that he said goodbye to the fans after the match:

This is just a bittersweet ending all around, even if it drags out until May.