Lukaku case, Chelsea are rooting for themselves: it only matters to sell him

The Blues don’t care where the Belgian goes to play, just sell him outright. It doesn’t fit into Pochettino’s plans

From our correspondent Davide Chinellato

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– London

And Chelsea is now waiting. The Blues’ idea has always been to sell Romelu Lukaku before leaving for the US on Sunday, before that tour in which Maurício Pochettino wants to build the team for a relaunch after the worst season ever in the Premier League. A team that the Belgian striker Inter wants to bring back to San Siro is not a part of. He made it clear himself, missing the first call-up for Cobham last Wednesday, continuing to repeat that he doesn’t want to know any more about the Blues and Stamford Bridge.

negotiation

The discussions between Inter and Chelsea seemed to have reached a point of agreement. The Blues want to sell the striker, not loan him out as in 2022-23, also to comply with the club’s new policy that wants to use loans only to help young players grow. And even in a market in which they have already collected over 250 million euros from transfers, Chelsea are not willing to compromise too much. This is why Inter had to wait to define the transfer of Onana to United before presenting itself with a concrete proposal. The thing that plays against Inter, in the yellow of the prosecutors who is enriching a negotiation that seemed close to conclusion with twists, is that where Lukaku will play next season around Stamford Bridge doesn’t matter much. It is enough for a team to show up with real money (at least 40 million, but the Blues with Inter seem to have agreed to go down to 35) and help close a chapter that has become complicated for everyone. The important thing is that the player changes his mind, preferably before Sunday. He was called up to Cobham for Monday, like the other redundancies that Pochettino will not bring to the USA and who remain on the market (Ziyech, Aubameyang, Hudson-Odoi, who Fulham likes a lot): they have all received permission not to train this week. but Chelsea are hoping that call-up for Monday will become useless because they have all found other accommodation. Starting with Lukaku: whether it’s Inter or elsewhere, the Blues don’t care much



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