Unless you’ve been taking a long, long time away from your phone and the transfer market rumours, then you’ll be aware that Romelu Lukaku isn’t happy at Chelsea and wants to leave.
That is a tough deal for anyone to pull off, considering the Blues spent over £100m to bring him back to Stamford Bridge last summer, and they’ll want most of that back to agree to an exit.
Few clubs will be willing to pay that, especially after the season the Belgian had under Thomas Tuchel, and therefore only temporary solutions are presenting themselves.
Inter are interested, mostly because Lukaku really wants to go back there, but the finances around a deal are making it very difficult.
Gazzetta dello Sport have a big article on it on Monday, explaining that, as things stand, this situation is ‘blocking half of Europe’s market’.
This is because an exit from Chelsea by Lukaku could set off a big domino effect around the continent, and with just two weeks left for Inter to use the Growth Decree to their advantage, things need to move fast.
Anything beyond that would be a ‘big problem’, as it would make the deal an ‘impossible operation’.
Still, as long as Inter have a chance, they will try, ‘especially because Simone Inzaghi wants him, who can’t wait to embrace his Romelu again’.
What helps Inter right now is that ‘Lukaku doesn’t want to consider another solution other than Inter, at least for the next two weeks’, or ‘at least until he gets on his knees in front of the Blues to free him’.
In fact, the striker ‘doesn’t want to hear about anything else’ and sees the move to Inter as a ‘desperate and indispensable pursuit to archive a terrible year from a professional point of view’.
If a deal were to take place, it would likely be a loan with a hefty fee up front, of around €25m.
