The past few days have seen the stories regarding Chelsea’s attempt to get rid of Romelu Lukaku by including him in a deal for Dusan Vlahovic become more positive.
However, there is a reluctancy from the Blues to spend the €40m that Juventus want for the Serbian, and that has caused a small sticking point in talks.
Gazzetta dello Sport bring the latest on Tuesday, and explain that despite this seemingly going ahead, it certainly hasn’t put a smile on everyone’s lips at Chelsea.
One of the people who is having to accept this is Mauricio Pochettino, the latest manager appointed by Todd Boehly to try and rectify the situation at Stamford Bridge after both Graham Potter and Frank Lampard failed.
The Italian newspaper explain that Vlahovic ‘does not have the full approval’ of the Argentine, who is ‘trying to build a young team with the aim of relaunching’ the Blues.
Not only that, but Boehly and co. have ‘doubts about the negotiation’ when it comes to spending €40m, but they don’t really have a choice.
Lukaku ‘is too big of a problem’ at the club these days, as Pochettino ‘fears’ he could ‘help destabilise his project’ merely by being there, which is why ‘an exchange with Dusan Vlahovic seems the only viable solution at the moment’.
The Belgian ‘does not want Chelsea and Chelsea consequently do not want’ him around, which is why he has ‘never spoken’ to his new manager, fully believing he would be gone by now.
With Boehly, Behdad Eghbali, Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley the four men in charge of the big decisions at Chelsea, it’s the second one who is the ‘main opponent’ of the deal with Juventus.
He does ‘not believe he can be useful for Chelsea’, especially for the terms set by the Italians to strike a deal.
The same applies for Pochettino, who isn’t sure about the Serbian and whether ‘he is better than Nicolas Jackson’ or if he ‘can integrated himself in his 4231’ in a team that won’t be playing in any European competition this year.
However, ‘everyone at Chelsea knows that Lukaku is a problem that needs to be resolved as quickly as possible’, and that includes agreeing to a deal ‘that nobody seems to believe in’.
