Arsenal wanted too much for Mustafi says Inter director while revealing delight in keeping Ivan Perisic

Inter Milan director Piero Ausilio has revealed that the club's pursuit of Shkodran Mustafi came to an end due to Arsenal's demands for the defender.

Mustafi joined the Gunners just last season in a big-money move, however, was linked with a move away from the Emirates Stadium with Inter believed to be the frontrunners.

Having made a fresh bid before deadline day, it was reported that the Serie A side had offered a loan fee of £4.6m ($5.95m) with an option to buy for £23m ($29.7m).

In the end, the German international remained at Arsenal and Ausilio claimed the north London club were asking for too much.

"The only negotiations we really entered into for a centre-back was Shkodran Mustafi," Ausilio said, as quoted on FourFourTwo. "But when we saw his club's demands, we let it go."

Meanwhile, Inter managed to successfully fend off persistent interest from Manchester United to hold on to star wide man Ivan Perisic.

With the Nerazzurri refusing to listen to any offers that fall below their £48m valuation of the player, Perisic eventually stayed at the San Siro with manager Luciano Spalletti claiming earlier in August that the Croatian was fully committed to remaining at the club.

Ausilio added that keeping the former Wolfsburg man was like a new signing and that with the players that have been brought in, Perisic and everyone involved at the club are convinced about the progress that Inter can make.

"Keeping hold of Ivan Perisic was a great buy, really," Ausilio explained. "We are convinced that we signed players who are suited to the project, as Inter have proved they are ready for the start of the season."

"Many players arrived, others have left, the squad is homogenous. We liked the idea of focusing on youngsters, including with investments like Yann Karamoh.

"We decided to do something simple, because just making changes for the sake of it was not of interest, so when we saw that certain objectives were unattainable.

"There are no regrets, we did things that were functional to the project and compatible with our circumstances. We signed midfielders, we brought in Karamoh and another interesting young player like Skriniar, who is performing well."