Nobody needs Julio Cesar…

Inter's acquisition of Samir Handanovic last week is generally considered a sensible move, ticking a lot of the right boxes on and off the pitch. He's younger, will earn less and has arguably been in better form over the last two seasons than Julio Cesar, the man he is replacing. Getting him in was easy – Udinese were never likely to turn down any offer that came close to being substantial. Now comes the hard part – getting rid of the Brazilian.
He turns 33 in September and is on €4.5m per year – a salary that not many clubs, if any, are going to want to pay to someone at that age – for two years. So already you are looking at a player that is going to need to take a pay cut when he moves.
That is not something that normally goes down well, but it does sometimes become acceptable if they are moving to clubs of a similar stature where they feel they can compete for trophies – see Mathieu Flamini's eventual begrudging acceptance of a cut from €4m a season to €1.8m at Milan. But how many top clubs are in the market for a goalkeeper? Nobody in England needs one, the Spanish are well covered in this regard and not many of the Italian and German teams have this as a priority.
Milan have popped up as a potential destination, but a new goalkeeper for their squad is not a necessity. The fact they would have to pay a transfer fee plus cover his wages, even if they are reduced, is likely to scupper that move when they have the perfectly serviceable Christian Abbiati of a similar age.
If the top teams are happy with what they have got and not actively seeking a new man between the sticks, Inter are looking at clubs just below this tier – Borussia Dortmund or Valencia perhaps – but Julio Cesar might not be looking at these clubs at all, and in this era where the power is with the players, if he does not want to go there, he will stay put.
And then there is his declining reputation. It was not long ago that he was considered the best in his position – now he would struggle to make the top three. Errors have crept into his game – he made a few in Inter's treble winning season, but they went largely unnoticed due to the team's success.
His mistake at the 2010 World Cup against Holland did not and he has not been the same goalkeeper since. There are slight parallels with fellow Brazilian Dida, who was once one of the best at Milan before hitting a sharp decline. The Rossoneri made the mistake of offering him a long extension on €4m a season, which soon left them stuck with a second and sometimes third choice goalkeeper happy to collect his wages.
Inter are avoiding that trap, actively seeking to move Julio Cesar on earlier than Milan did with Dida, but the combination of factors is not in their favour. The hard-ball stance they have taken until now – leaving him out of pre-season – is only likely to strengthen the ‘keeper’s resolve to stay, as will his large salary. The fact that there are suggestions they may be willing to soften and incorporate him back in the squad suggests they are cottoning on to the lengthy fight they face to sell him.