Club ready to ‘lower’ striker’s release clause to help him go to Chelsea – Blues could save €35m

With Chelsea in dire need of a new striker in the summer, there are a couple of options the club can think about.

The first one is they can decide to keep Romelu Lukaku around, who will be returning from his loan at Inter on June 30th, but the news from Italy is that neither Todd Boehly nor Graham Potter want to keep him around more than they have to.

The other involves Tammy Abraham, who was sold to AS Roma, but with a buy-back clause worth €80m set to be activated this summer.

With Boehly’s project involving young players, the 25-year-old would still fall in that category, and they could also receive some help from Roma if Il Messaggero are to be believed on Wednesday.

Relayed by Siamo La Roma, the Italian newspaper claim that Abraham is ‘seen as an alternative to Victor Osimhen’ by the Blues hierarchy, and Tiago Pinto, the technical director in Rome, would be ready to ‘lower the buyback clause’ from €80m to €45-50m (meaning a drop of either €30m or €35m) to facilitate a transfer.

While that would mean a loss of potential revenue, it would still ‘guarantee a capital gain’ for the Serie A club, all the while giving Chelsea a cheaper option than the Nigerian, who is likely to cost upwards of €100m.

That’s good news for Graham Potter, if he’s still in a job come the summer, of course.