Report: Inter confident of striking loan deal for Alexis Sanchez

Alexis Sanchez could still move to Italy this summer despite reportedly spurning a switch to Roma last week.

Inter are now confident of agreeing to a season-long loan for the Manchester United outcast before the transfer window closes Sept. 2, according to the Guardian's Fabrizio Romano and Ed Aarons. Nerazzurri manager Antonio Conte has apparently stepped up his interest in the Chilean attacker after former target Edin Dzeko signed a new three-year contract with Roma.

It's understood United agreed to pay a large portion of Sanchez's £300,000 per week wage if he joined Roma, and it may be the success of those talks that fuels Inter's confidence in brokering their own deal.

Romano tweeted shortly after his and Aarons' report was published to claim Sanchez's agent is in England with Inter's offer and will begin negotiations with Manchester United. Should those discussions break down, Inter's contingency plan is to snap up former Juventus frontman Fernando Llorente, who is available for nothing after his Tottenham Hotspur contract expired at the end of last season.

Conte has overseen wholesale changes ahead of his first campaign in charge of Inter, with Romelu Lukaku's £70-million arrival from Manchester United and the free acquisition of Diego Godin headlining a wealth of incoming transfers. Radja Nainggolan and Ivan Perisic, meanwhile, have departed on initial loan deals, and the future of striker Mauro Icardi is still unresolved.