Inter Milan chief Dario Baccin admits they twice missed out on Argentina-based strikers.

Baccin says they tried for Manchester City striker Julian Alvarez and Genoa's Mateo Retegui.

He told Sky Italia: "It is full of interesting players, after a crisis that lasted until about two years ago, where there was less talent, potentially very very good players have returned.

"Clearly all these (South American) countries have structured themselves. There are new agencies, increased number of sporting directors, this makes it much more complicated to go there and sign players at competitive prices. The English and German teams move in advance, thanks to the benefits on non-EU players. They put budgets on them that are unthinkable.

On Alvarez and Retegui, he added: "You mentioned two names that I won't deny that we have followed in the past. For an operation there are many parameters that coincide at that moment, as well as including them in the staff. We liked them but for a whole series of reasons it was not possible to take them."