Roman Abramovich ‘firmly believes’ he can bring Romelu Lukaku back to Chelsea this summer and is willing to spend to make it happen.
That’s according to FC Inter News, who cover the situation today and how much it is likely to cost the Blues to get Lukaku out of Inter Milan.
They say that having digested Borussia Dortmund’s refusal to sell Erling Haaland, Chelsea have now ‘flung themselves’ at their alternative, Lukaku.
There is no official proposal at this moment in time, but the figures have been leaked, with talk of a €100-110m bid and a yearly salary of €15m for the striker, which would be twice as much as he earns in Milan.
Inter Milan don’t want to lose the Belgian star, and Beppe Marotta and Piero Ausilio have made that clear. However, the final decision is not in their hands, but those of owners Suning.
They are less firm, and if a cheque for €130m were to be put on the table, they could say yes because it would allow them to resolve all of the financial issues at the club and then give the management €90m to reinvest in the squad.
For this reason, their current no to Chelsea is nothing more than a media stunt, largely because there is no official offer to reject as yet.
Lukaku, for his part, is happy in Milan and has never thought of leaving.
He has ‘declined any invitation to leave’, and nobody is putting pressure on him to accept, but if an offer was accepted, this would be a clear signal that after the departure of Conte and then Achraf Hakimi, the project he signed up for is over.
That could pave the road back to Chelsea, although at the minute, it’s just a hypothesis as the Blues are yet to make an official move.
