Inter Milan will not be making a bid for Manchester United's Henrikh Mkhitaryan or Javier Pastore of Paris Saint-Germain during the January transfer window because they cannot afford either, according to their coach Luciano Spalletti.

ESP reported, at a press conference on Friday, Spalletti discussed what he called a "distracting" transfer window, since he cannot find anybody who can improve the squad he has already got who is not priced out of Inter's reach.

"I think people are ignoring it because you know all too well what the problems are. It's what I was saying at the start of the season: if we want to improve, we need to get players who are better than the ones we've already got," he said at a news conference.

"Who do you want us to go and get, who is better than what we've got? Tell me? Come on, give me some names, otherwise we just go around [in circles]. It's up to you…"

One reporter mentioned attacking midfielder Mkhitaryan. "Mkhitaryan, [Javier] Pastore and then… you see? You need €30-40 million to buy them. We don't have it. It's no use beating about the bush — I've been told that we can't spend €40m, so there's no point even talking about it.

"Maybe you could have an exchange of players on loan, but then you would need, for example, Manchester United to want one of our players, but you've both got to have the same intentions,” the coach was quoted by the source.