At this point, the only thing driving this Romelu Lukaku to Inter story is hope: hope that Manchester United will accept a loan with a view to buy and hope that someone comes along and gives the Serie A side a lot of money for either Mauro Icardi, Ivan Perisic or Radja Nainggolan.
Right now, none of those things have happened, as both Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere dello Sport look at the situation as it is.
The former of the two are quite blunt, explaining that without the sale of one of their three ‘ex-leaders’, launching a serious assault for the Manchester United forward is simply ‘impossible’.
Corriere, however, are a bit more, for lack of a better word, optimistic, discussing the reported offer of €10m up front for a two-year loan followed by a compulsory view to buy at €60m.
However, as you might have expected, these figures didn’t ‘satisfy’ Manchester United, who want the money up front, and there’s a feeling ‘a lot more work’ needs to be done to get anywhere near an agreement.
Inter even thought about offering Radja Nainggolan as part of the deal, but the Red Devils are said to have been ‘really cold’ at the idea, just like they were for Mauro Icardi.
As you can see, there’s not been a lot of progress, and with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer expecting his troops back in action for preseason in the next few days, it looks like Romelu Lukaku will have to show up for an awkward reunion.
Unless makes a stand and doesn’t turn up altogether, which would make things even more interesting.
There really is nothing like a player going AWOL to spice up a transfer saga.
