Football Spy: MODRIC FOR SPECIAL ONE.

Byline: By JOHN CROSS

INTER MILAN are targeting Tottenham midfielder Luka Modric - andwant to offload Italian hardman Marco Materazzi at White Hart Lane.

Inter boss Jose Mourinho is under orders to trim his ageing squad and 35-year-old Materazzi is being touted around the Premier League.

Harry Redknapp is chasing a loan signing to strengthen his Spurs defence because of captain Ledley King's persistent injury problems - and Materazzi is under consideration.

Former Everton defender Materazzi, infamous for his World Cup Final bust-up with Zinedine Zidane (left), is under contract to Inter until 2010 but he has enjoyed few chances under Mourinho's reign.

Mourinho is interested in Modric, while the Special One has already gone public in his admiration of out-of-favour Jermaine Jenas as Redknapp looks to shake-up his bunch of under-achievers.

Modric (right) has failed to live up to huge expectations following his pounds 16.6million move from Dynamo Zagreb last April.

Juventus are also interested in Modric, who has struggled to fit into Tottenham's formation.

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is unlikely to sanction a move this month with the club fighting relegation, but very few players will be safe from a major cull next summer.

Redknapp has singled out Ledley King, Michael Dawson, Jamie O'Hara and Jonathan Woodgate as "untouchables" from the squad he inherited - but the rest could be vulnerable.

That is why Modric is now seen as a potential target for foreign clubs because the 23-year-old Croatian playmaker could be surplus to requirements and sold to help finance a major shake-up of the squad.

Mexican wonderkid Giovanni Dos Santos insists he does not want to leave Spurs.

Dos Santos, who arrived from Barcelona last summer for pounds 6m in a blaze of publicity, has been offered to Lyon in part-exchange for Brazilian striker Fred.

But Dos Santos said: "I have never spoken to Lyon and I would like to stay at Tottenham, because ever since I have come to the club I have not had any luck. I am young, ambitious and I want to stay and succeed in England."