When Inter agreed to take Romelu Lukaku back from Chelsea, the Serie A side had to pay a large chunk of his wages and hand over €8m to the Blues.
This was accepted by the Stamford Bridge side, as Thomas Tuchel no longer wanted to work with the Belgian and Todd Boehly was at the start of his revolution.
The hope was that Lukaku would find his old Inter form away from Chelsea, but that hasn’t been the case, as injuries and a poor run of games has planted a seed of doubt in the Italians’ minds.
We’ve covered a chunk of this already in the past, but Gazzetta dello Sport add another bit of information on Tuesday about the thought process behind the scenes in Milan.
In an article about finding the right partner for Lautaro Martínez up front, they look at the Joaquin Correa and Edin Dzeko before spending some time on the Chelsea loanee.
It’s said there is ‘nothing taken for granted’ around the Belgium International, not even the price of another loan, because the Serie A side ‘would never want to pay another €8m’ to keep him around.
Beyond that, his failure to find the back of the net on a regular basis is a big issue, as his recent goal against Porto looked like the beginning of the end for his tough period, only for him to then struggle once more after that.
Of the 19 goals scored in 2023 by Inter, Martínez has scored nine of them, and Lukaku two, giving you an idea of just why the Chelsea man is no longer guaranteed a future in Italy going forward.
