It appears that Chelsea have gone up a gear in their pursuit of Romelu Lukaku.
That feeling comes via Gazzetta dello Sport, who make it very clear the Blues aren’t messing around, and they want this done by Sunday at the very least.
Inter, down their end, are almost helpless as Lukaku ‘addressed Simone Inzaghi’ on Wednesday ‘to communicate his choice to go to Chelsea’.
The first offer of €100m + Marcos Alonso was rejected four days ago, but now, ‘Marina Granovskaia intends to present a new offer, obviously improved’, and ‘the intention is to close the deal within 48 hours, in order to make Romelu available to Thomas Tuchel for Wednesday’s Super Cup against Villarreal’.
Gazzetta explain ‘it is the player himself who pushes for an immediate solution’, and while he did commit to Inter in these past few weeks, ‘what convinced him was the insistence of the European Champion with an increasingly top-notch project’.
The €12m/year wages also helped, ‘but it’s the new challenge’ that seems to draw him away from Milan.
The bigger issue for Inter is who do they replace him with, and names such as Duvan Zapata, Dusan Vlahovic, Gianluca Scamacca or the Irania Sardar Azmoun.
None of those, however, are Lukaku, who was key to Antonio Conte’s side winning Serie A last season, who, according to Corriere dello Sport has now ‘decided to break with Inter and ask for the sale to Chelsea’.
This move was a ‘cold shower’ for both Beppe Marotta and Piero Ausilio, and it made Simone Inzaghi ‘very angry’, as the new manager ‘expected to be warned first by the centre-forward’.
Corriere explain the elements pushing Lukaku towards Chelsea, and those are ‘the rich salary of €12m post tax and €3m in bonuses’, ‘the downsizing taking place at Inter’ and ‘the courtship of Tuchel and a club that won the Champions League’.
The newspaper reckons the new offer will be €110m + Alonso, but that will also be met with a no from Inter, who seem to want cash and nothing else.
Unlike Gazzetta, Corriere reckon Granovskaia is in ‘no hurry’, seemingly fully aware of the player’s desire and ready to wait while this plays out in Italy.
The fans are unhappy, as shown by their ‘Company… Careful… Promises must be kept’, referring to Inter stating no big names would be sold after Achraf Hakimi, while Lukaku’s teammates were reportedly ‘perplexed’ at the situation on Wednesday.
It’s all getting a bit messy, but Chelsea have the money, and we all know money talks in these situations, especially for a club like Inter, who aren’t in the most financially stable position.
