Italian champions Inter are hopeful of soon signing Chelsea duo Deco and Ricardo Carvalho, club president Massimo Moratti said today.

Midfielder Deco played for Inter coach Jose Mourinho at Porto where they won the 2004 Champions League while centre back Carvalho won two Premier League titles under his Portuguese compatriot at Chelsea.

"There is still no agreement with Chelsea but I think we will manage to find one shortly," Moratti told Gazzetta dello Sport.

"The coach has asked us for Deco and Carvalho and we are trying to make him happy. We want to take both of them and I'm pleased to see the two players want to come here."

The 31-year-old Deco, who only signed for the Londoners from Barcelona last year, has expressed his unhappiness at being given a bit-part role at Chelsea at the end of last season.

Moratti said Inter were also fans of Chelsea striker Didier Drogba but stopped short of saying they would again bid for the Ivorian.

Inter, in the process of buying Genoa striker Diego Milito and midfielder Thiago Motta, are trying to keep hold of Zlatan Ibrahimovic after the Sweden striker said he needed a new challenge.

Moratti has played down the chance of a swap deal with Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o and said no offers had yet arrived for Serie A's top scorer last term.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.