Romelu Lukaku’s much heralded return to Chelsea didn’t work out for either the player or the club.
After an up and down spell with Manchester United, the striker had moved to Inter Milan and excelled. His return to the Premier League was set to show how wrong the Red Devils had got it, but it ended up quite the opposite.
Once again, Lukaku was off to Inter Milan, this time on loan from Chelsea.
The Belgium international has 12 goals in 31 appearances this season and hasn’t had the desired impact. His eight Serie A goals have tended to come against smaller clubs and Inter aren’t desperate to sign him permanently.
Monday’s edition of Gazzetta dello Sport reports Lukaku very much wants to stay and his entourage are ‘pressuring Chelsea’ to help make that happen.
Gazzetta don’t think there’ll be any chance of a lower loan fee, with that expected to again be around €8m, but there is a suggestion Chelsea could contribute more to the player’s wages.
That would be on top of Lukaku taking a further pay cut.
There’s probably going to be a reluctance at Chelsea to agree to that, and the player himself may have to make a bigger effort.
