Today appears to be Romelu Lukaku day, with many articles emerging from Italy that Chelsea have made a renewed attempt to sign their former player.
The original bid came last week, but Gianluca Di Marzio on Tuesday stated the Blues are ready to return to the fore, and could reach €120m in order to get their man, which Inter could be forced to accept because it was simply too good to refuse.
The Italian journalist also hinted Lukaku was thinking about the opportunity to return to his former club, especially with talk of Inter, despite being fresh from a Serie A title, downsizing their squad.
Well, it appears that elsewhere, there are mixed reports about the Belgian’s and Inter’s desire to get a deal done.
Take Gazzetta dello Sport, for example, who make it clear that Chelsea ‘plan to get serious in the coming days for Lukaku’, but Inter will reject anything that comes their way.
That’s because he is ‘considered too central a player for the technical project’ and is ‘difficult to give up, even in the face of high offers’, primarily because selling would then make it ‘very complicated to deliver a team that is still competitive for the title’.
In fact, ‘probably not even €120m cash would be enough, assuming that London ever reach those figures’.
As for Lukaku, it’s said that despite Chelsea coming back again to see if he was interested, he ‘reaffirmed his desire to stay’ at Inter, a club he feels attached to.
That’s all very well and good, but there are some who don’t believe this in the slightest.
Take Italian journalist Mario Sconcerti, who takes to Calciomercato to explain that some things ‘don’t add up’.
Firstly, the news that Roman Abramovich’s son personally made the trip to talk to Lukaku, in Milan for ‘several days’, begs the question ‘why did Inter allow it?’.
Secondly, following claims, mostly from Gazzetta, the striker ‘turned down offers from Chelsea’, why did the Blues then ‘make an official offer’?
If the Premier League side did in fact talk to Lukaku and then made an offer, ‘they would seem to be moves that follow each other’ because if he said no, ‘what would Chelsea be looking for?’.
For Sconcerti, it seems that ‘maybe someone gave them hope’, strongly hinting that would be the player himself.
