Aston Villa are ready to battle it out with Napoli for Chelsea’s Romelu Lukaku this summer, at least according to claims from Italy.
The striker has no future at Chelsea and is keen on reuniting with Antonio Conte at the Serie A side. They are finding it difficult to agree a deal with the Blues, partly because of the Villans.
Corriere dello Sport say Aston Villa are ‘ready to pay’ the £37.5m requested by Chelsea to sign Lukaku. He has less than two years left on his deal, with a salary of €10m per year.
The Belgium international has rejected Unai Emery’s side on several occasions. His desire is to join the Naples club, but the Blues’ request is too high for them. Their intention is to close the deal for €25m plus bonuses.
Meanwhile, Il Mattino state Aston Villa ‘haven’t given up yet’ on the possibility of signing the 31-year-old.
The Birmingham club ‘put pressure’ on Chelsea, which is making it hard for Conte’s side to sign the former Everton man.
It’s claimed Napoli have had a deal in place with Lukaku since June and they had a new meeting with Chelsea on Friday, to find an agreement on the transfer fee.
Lukaku’s agent Federico Pastorello is ‘starting to have problems’ because Aston Villa are still pushing to sign the Chelsea player, despite his refusal.
As we’ve mentioned previously, it’s difficult to fully believe these claims and they be an effort from Chelsea to pressure Napoli.
