Chelsea have reportedly agreed a fee with Aston Villa over the transfer of Romelu Lukaku as the Blues ‘lose patience’ with the striker’s preferred club this summer.
Lukaku returned to Chelsea for £97m from Inter Milan in the summer of 2021 but things didn’t go to plan despite his claim he has “unfinished business” at Stamford Bridge, as he hit out at then manager Thomas Tuchel and claimed he wanted to return to Inter in a bombshell interview.
The striker has spent the last two seasons out on loan from Chelsea, first back at Inter and then with Roma, with the Belgian scoring 21 goals in 47 appearances for the latter in 2023/24.
But the Blues want to secure a fee for him this summer and there have been rumours of interest from Manchester United – which would be a smart move from Dan Ashworth – but it’s Napoli who have been most heavily linked with his signature.
Antonio Conte is now in charge of the Serie A side and Lukaku thrived under the Italian’s guidance at Inter Milan.
It’s been rumoured that Lukaku could be involved in a deal that would see Victor Osimhen – one of Chelsea’s top striker targets for over a year – move to Stamford Bridge in exchange.
But Napoli’s €100m asking price for Osimhen is a sticking point in negotiations as the Blues look to comply with Premier League profit and sustainability rules.
Even with Lukaku included, it’s thought Chelsea would still have to stump up between €60m and €70m to sign the Nigerian, which looks to be beyond their means in a relatively lean summer in terms of expenditure.
Reports in Italy claim Lukaku only has eyes for Napoli and the striker has ‘given his word to Conte’, but it’s also been claimed that Chelsea ‘have come to an agreement with Aston Villa’ over a move to Villa Park this summer, though it’s not clear what the transfer fee is.
Chelsea have put Lukaku’s ‘back to the wall’ as they ‘would like the Belgian to accept the move to Birmingham’, but Lukaku ‘just wants to go back to his old master’.
The Blues are ‘losing patience’ with Lukaku, who is currently training alone at the Cobham training ground while the rest of the squad is on the pre-season tour of the United States.
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Villa are on the lookout for a new striker to compete with star man Ollie Watkins after backup option Jhon Duran told the club he wanted to leave this summer in search of more game time.
Duran only moved to Villa in January 2023 from Chicago for £15m, was heavily linked with a move to Chelsea and recently gave the green light over a move to West Ham.
Reports claim the Hammers had a £35m bid rejected for Duran and have since moved onto other targets, including Borussia Dortmund’s Niclas Fullkrug, and although the Colombia international says he’s not interested in a move to Saudi Arabia, he is still angling for the Villa Park exit.