Lukaku, Chelsea open to loan. There is Rome

Chelsea have decided: they want to get rid of Romelu Lukaku. Cost that cost, even reactivate that loan formula (the same one with which Romelu played for Inter in 2022-23) which he had always excluded so far. The Blues keep it as a last resort, in case a club doesn’t arrive next week ready to pay at least 40 million to take the Belgian’s card, separated at home. But in the meantime they have already started working on it. The conditions are the same applied to Inter last season: the loan has a cost and the team that hires Lukaku will have to pay his salary. On the other hand, no obligation to purchase will be required. The Blues still have two free slots for international loans: one is reserved for Deivid Washington, a Brazilian full-back bought yesterday from Santos for 20 million who will be sent to Strasbourg, an affiliate club of the Blues; the other is kept free for Big Rom.

the hypothesis

—

According to Telegraph, the team most interested in Lukaku on loan is Roma. The Giallorossi are already talking to Chelsea. Rom would be ready to reduce his salary (at the moment he is on the payroll for 10.8 million net per season) and to go back to work with Mourinho, who had already had him at Chelsea and at United. Roma would have decided to move for him despite the arrival of Azmoun and the fact that Lukaku will need time (at least a month of training and matches) to regain the condition he doesn’t currently have, after a month of work with the Under 21 of the Blues and the last real match played with Belgium over two months ago. Chelsea’s opening to the loan would also be the consequence of the fact that Lukaku would have tired of waiting for the move from Juve, the club he had chosen. The Bianconeri tried to take the Belgian outright by exchanging him for Vlahovic, but Chelsea said no because they weren’t willing to pay 40 million over the Serbian’s price tag. No other European club has come forward with concrete proposals for the Belgian, despite the fact that the lawyer Ledure has offered it to half of Europe and some unconvinced polls of other Premier clubs, including Tottenham. Other teams could come forward now that a loan has become an option, but according to the English press, Roma have a clear advantage.

no arabia

—

The opening to the loan is also the consequence of the freezing of the Arab track, the one that Lukaku has always refused but which, like Chelsea, he saw as a last resort in case of no escape route from Cobham prison by September 1st. Al Hilal had reached an agreement with Chelsea for 50 million and had offered Lukaku a huge two-year contract, but the Belgian always said no and in the meantime the Saudi club took Neymar and invested the money it had intended for Lukaku for the Serbian Aleksandar Mitrovic, snatched from Fulham. The Saudi League transfer market closes on September 7, but at the moment there are no other clubs with Lukaku on the agenda. And Chelsea, who like the player want a solution to this story that has been dragging on for two months, have opened up to the only hypothesis they have always excluded up to now: the loan.