Fonder of their transfer rumours than the vast majority of Europe, the Italian media decided to tell us a little story on Wednesday, with Chelsea’s Romelu Lukaku as the main protagonist.
It comes from Gazzetta dello Sport, who look at the possibility of the Belgian returning to Inter, a club that made him feel welcome and special.
The Serie A side and Lukaku were clearly made for each other, and yet the striker unceremoniously dumped them in a heartbeat when his ex slid into his DMs, as she promised him the world to make sure he took her back.
Their renewed whirlwind romance was great for a few weeks, but it soon became clear, much like the first time, this wasn’t meant to be, and it didn’t take long for the Belgium international to try and crawl back into Inter’s heart, sitting down for an interview with Sky Italia where he declared his renewed love for the Italian club.
Chelsea weren’t best pleased with this, and, falling short of throwing his clothes on the street from the window, benched him, where he has mostly remained since.
Gazzetta explain what happened next, revealing he has been sneaking behind the Blues’ back, because ‘this is a story of exploratory calls and messages’ added to ‘emojis, audio and even video chats’.
The player ‘remains increasingly peripheral’ for Chelsea, which is why he has ‘(re)opened the channel for weeks’ with Inter, and ‘it’s not just a courtesy WhatsApp or nostalgic calls to old teammates’.
The issue is that Inter are ‘obliged to keep the cards in hand’ as they are ‘squeezed between budgetary needs’, so they ‘wait to see what happens’ at Stamford Bridge this summer.
Their reasoning is that ‘if Lukaku really goes to break up with the Blues’, they ‘would really be ready to make an attempt’.
In fact, ‘in the upper floors, Inter no longer 100% exclude the possibility of a return’, as even the Belgium manager, Roberto Martínez, feels a move away from Stamford Bridge would be best for his star striker.
He is said to have ‘spoken several times with Rom, who was not called up for the last two friendlies’, and the pair ‘agreed on the need to refuel in view of the World Cup and to look for a new adventure outside of London’.
This is because Lukaku ‘was a sovereign’ at Inter, but is now ‘demoted to a humble servant at Chelsea’, where ‘he tries to fit into a body that rejects him’.
Still, everything will have to wait until the end of April, when we will have a better idea of what the London club’s future looks like, with the sale potentially going through before the end of the campaign.
Once that’s done, Inter could ‘talk about a loan, perhaps with some form of redemption’ and will also look ‘for positive aspects for everyone’.
The idea is that Lukaku ‘would return to his long-for-home and certainly revalue himself, while Chelsea would not hold back a player’ who doesn’t want to be there and who is ‘completely incompatible with Thomas Tuchel’s game’.
Furthermore, they will not want to see a €113m investment ‘plummet even further’, and the striker himself will likely agree to a wage cut, going from his €12.5m/year in England and ‘settle for something close to €7.5m’.
However, ‘it takes time’ to reach that point, as well as ‘many, many more hours on the cellphone’.
