The Italian has already brought Lukas Podolski and Xherdan Shaqiri to San Siro and refused to rule out a move for one of his former players

Roberto Mancini has hinted Inter could make a shock move for Manchester City star Yaya Toure.

The Serie A club have already sealed loan deals for Lukas Podolski from Arsenal and Bayern Munich’s Xherdan Shaqiri, both of which are expected to be made into permanent moves in the summer.

But Mancini is still in the market for further reinforcements and when asked about the prospect of making a move for Toure, who he managed at the Etihad Stadium, the Italian refused to rule out a reunion with the midfielder.

“Inter have more appeal than many teams,” he said on Saturday. “I had Yaya at Manchester City and I rate him as one of the best players in the world.

“We’ll see what happens in the future, but he belongs to Manchester City.”

Toure, 31, was tipped to leave City last summer after revealing he was unhappy the club failed to acknowledge his birthday and recently admitted an interest in a future move to Paris Saint-Germain.

Dinamo Zagreb’s Marcelo Brozovic and Lassana Diarra, who is a free agent after leaving Lokomotiv Moscow but remains mired in a legal dispute with the club, are other rumoured targets, though Mancini was lukewarm over deals for both players.

“I don’t think they’re easy routes to go down. We’ll see,” said the Italian.

One man who looks set to leave Inter is striker Pablo Osvaldo, who failed to turn up for training twice after tweeting a picture of himself at a party in Madrid last weekend.

The striker, who is on loan from Southampton, eventually showed up at the club’s Pinetina training ground on Wednesday but was ordered to train alone, which appears to spell the end to his temporary stay at the club.

“I have no issues with Osvaldo but I hope he can find a good solution and I wish him all the best,” Mancini added.