The future of Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku is still unknown with just over a week remaining in the summer transfer window. Lukaku has been linked with a move away from Everton.
Lukaku has reaffirmed that he wants to leave Stamford Bridge after returned from a season on loan at Inter Milan; however, Chelsea is running out of time to unload the 30-year-old after talks with Al-Hilal and Inter fell through. He spent the previous season on loan at Inter Milan.
Lukaku believed that he still possessed the ability to compete at the greatest level, thus he turned down a proposal from Al-Hilal at the beginning of the transfer period.
The Belgian forward had previously been on Inter’s books from 2019-2021 before going to Chelsea for a reported fee of £32 million ($A63 million), which included add-ons that were agreed upon between the two clubs. Inter were eager to get the Belgian striker back to the club on a permanent basis.
However, Internazionale were livid when they found out that he had been covertly negotiating a prospective move to their rivals Juventus. These negotiations began when Internazionale were getting ready for a Champions League final, which made the situation even more embarrassing for Lukaku.
It is a huge about-face from the star, given that in 2021 he stated that he would “never” sign for Inter’s main rivals Juventus and AC Milan.
After learning that Lukaku was in talks with Juventus, Inter abruptly terminated their agreement with him as soon as they became aware of the situation.
Lukaku has reportedly been working out with Chelsea’s Under-21 team, and he has not yet had a conversation with new boss Mauricio Pochettino, as reported by The Telegraph.
According to The Telegraph, Chelsea has not changed their stance and would not permit Romelu Lukaku to leave the club on loan. Currently, Juventus is the only team that is aggressively pursuing him.
The Blues have already been approached by Juventus with two different swap-deal offers for Lukaku, both of which entailed Juventus removing Dusan Vlahovic’s salary from Chelsea’s payroll, but Chelsea has rejected both of these propositions.
Due to the limits imposed by financial fair play, Juventus will be unable to sign Lukaku unless they first sell Vlahovic or one of their other similarly high-profile players.
The Blues will be eager to cash in on Lukaku given that they have continued their big-spending ways during this transfer window. This is because the Blues would rather not pay Lukaku’s high wages for a season in which he may very well spend the season on the bench away from the first team.
Lukaku, who is running out of choices soon, requires Chelsea to decrease their asking price in order for a move to Juventus to become possible. Alternatively, Juventus has to offload Vlahovic in order for Lukaku’s move to become possible.
The summer transfer market shuts on September 1, but Saudi Arabia’s transfer window expires almost a week later on September 14. This means that if a deal with Juventus is unable to be reached, he may have to consider moving to Saudi Arabia as his final alternative.
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