An unamed Premier League club and Napoli are allegedly in the chase for Torino defender Nikola Maksimovic but the Serie A club insist they could still keep him.
The Serbia international missed training and Torino's opening 3-2 defeat at AC Milan on Sunday, but sporting director Gianluca Petrachi is in no rush to sell the centre-back.
Maksimovic has failed to attend training without permission, but Petrachi is unwilling to rule out the chance of the Turin-based club retaining their wantaway star, especially after selling Kamil Glik to Monaco and Bruno Peres to Roma earlier in the transfer window.
"Sinisa Mihajlovic [Torino's head coach] wanted to try and keep hold of Maksimovic," Petrachi told Mediaset Premium.
"Torino have always been consistent and allowed players to leave when they requested it, such as Kamil Glik and Bruno Peres.
"Maksimovic wanted to be sold, but with Mihajlovic's arrival, the situation changed - we had promised the coach that we would not sell him and in turn promised the player a raise.
"Unfortunately, somebody gave him some bad advice. Maksimovic is not a bad lad, but his choice was not an intelligent one. We have taken action and we will evaluate the situation.
"We have been talking to Napoli about Maksimovic since January, so there has been too much talk and not enough action.
"Now he is wanted by a big foreign club too, but at the same time we won't rule out him staying.
"It is an English club and the Premier League does have greater financial resources than other leagues."
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