Romelu Lukaku played for Inter last season Photo by Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images)
Romelu Lukaku was set to talk to Mauricio Pochettino regarding his future after the player was ordered to participate in Chelsea’s training on Monday. Given that the day is now over, one can safely assume talks between the two took place.
According to the Daily Mail (h/t Mirror), Inter Milan were open to raising their offer to £30 million plus add-ons for the 30-year-old after Juventus submitted a bid of £32 million plus £2 million.
The striker has been practising alone in Turkey while his agents are hoping to secure a transfer to either Inter Milan or Juventus, both of whom are vying for his signature.
Despite being told to come back to training sessions, the 30-year-old still does not remain in Pochettino’s plan for the 2023–24 campaign and will not fly with the club to the USA for the pre-season games. It makes sense if his future doesn’t lie here.
The former Manchester United player also has interest from Saudi clubs, but he has made it clear that he wants to continue in Europe, and now Juventus seem to have an advantage over him as Inter are threatening to withdraw from the race due to the Turin-based giants’ newfound interest in the player.
The Belgian forward was signed for £97.5 million in 2021 and had a decent season at the club before he made a contentious interview in which he openly admitted he wanted to return to Inter.
It looks like Lukaku has internally accepted that he wants a transfer. The fans in SW6 have done so too. It could be about the best offer that comes to the table. He wasn’t signed under Todd Boehly’s reign.
So that could take away a large chunk of regret that would have been associated with paying a then-club-record sum for him. Let’s cut our losses and invest that money elsewhere — preferably on a striker that suits Mauricio Pochettino’s tactics.
Lukaku is still a top striker when injury-free; as we saw during his time at Inter when he led them to the Serie A title in the 2020–21 season and ended the campaign winning Serie A’s MVP award. Chelsea fans will wish nothing but good things for him if he does depart in the coming weeks. But let’s just hope that he does, because this saga has gone on long enough.
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