Romelu Lukaku has urged Inter Milan to accept Chelsea’s bid for his services according to reports in Italy and the United Kingdom.
Recall that Chelsea first made a bid of £85 million-plus Marcos Alonso to the Italian Serie A side for the services of the 28-year-old striker which the Italian club rejected.
The rejection did not deter Chelsea to continue to push for the services of Romelu Lukaku who scored 30 goals and provided 10 assists in 44 games for Inter Milan last season. Hence, the Premier League club decided to table an approved bid for the services of the Belgian striker.
The latest reports claimed that Chelsea are set to make an improved offer worth about £111 million for the services of the player with the hope that the money would tempt Inter Milan chairman Steven Zhang to sell the Belgian this summer.
However, speculation around Inter Milan claimed that the Italian club are not ready to allow Romelu Lukaku to leave the club this summer no matter how tempting the price is.
In the same vein, the financial situation at the club might leave the club with no choice but to allow Lukaku to go for as high as the new bid Chelsea is reportedly preparing to table for the Belgium international.
Lukaku’s new desire to return to the Premier League to play for a club that did not appreciate him when he was younger might leave Inter Milan with no choice but to sell him.
Recall that Chelsea brought Romelu Lukaku from Belgian club, RSC Anderlecht for a transfer fee worth €15 million on August 8, 2011. However, the then coach of the club, Jose Mourinho could not find a way to use him and had to send him on loan to West Brom and then to Everton.
Chelsea went on to sell him permanently to Everton for just €36. 36 million on July 30, 2014. While at the Premier League club, he became so good that Manchester United decided to buy him for €84.70 million on July 10, 2017.
When things were not going too well with him and the backroom staff of the club especially under coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Lukaku agreed to join Inter Milan for €74 million on August 8, 2019.
Since then, the Belgian football star has become a household name in Italian football. He helped the club to win the Italian Seria title last season.
His performance did not only attracted Chelsea to him this summer, Manchester City had shown interest in him then but the club’s unwillingness to discuss discourage City from making an official bid.
Chelsea are getting confident to sign Lukaku soon. Direct talks with Inter, new official bid coming. €12m net per season + add ons offered to Romelu who’s open to re-join Chelsea 🔵 #CFC
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 4, 2021
Inter are considering Duván Zapata as replacement – and Atalanta will go for Tammy Abraham.
Chelsea’s coach, Thomas Tuchel describes Romelu Lukaku as a fantastic player
After Chelsea’s pre-season match against Tottenham Hotspur which ended in a 2-2 draw on Wednesday, August 4, 2021, the coach of Chelsea, Thomas Tuchel was dragged into the link between the club and Inter Milan striker, Romelu Lukaku.
Though the German tactician failed to directly address the transfer speculation, he claimed that a lot of players want to join the club.
“I will not talk about players who don’t play in my squad,” Tuchel said. “And Romelu Lukaku is a fantastic player but he’s a player from Inter and it’s with all the respect I will not talk about him in this situation.
“Everybody wants to come (to Chelsea) hopefully. Not everybody, unfortunately, but you can imagine that a lot of players want to come and join.
“The board is not offering players. That’s not the way it works so far. We’re talking with the board about players and if our opinions and the scouts conclude, then we target players who, in all our opinion, could make our squad stronger, which is quite a challenge to find.
“We don’t only talk about talent but also attitude because we have a strong squad and there are some players of which we think they could be a good target and good add-ons and good improvement in our squad.”
