The Blues are willing to compromise on their demands to allow Romelu Lukaku to seal a swift return to former club Internazionale, reports Goal. Chelsea paid a club-record fee a year earlier to bring the striker back to Stamford Bridge – a decade after he initially joined the Premier League side from his boyhood club Anderlecht before joining the loan carousel – but the move didn’t work out for reasons on and off the field.
Inter Milan’s troubled finances mean the club cannot afford a straight deal for Lukaku. Instead, talk has been of a loan agreement that would allow Chelsea to recoup a fraction of the fee while allowing the Belgian to return to Italy for a year, before either an option or the obligation to purchase him outright kicks in.
As it stands, the Nerazzurri are offering a 5-7 million euros loan fee to get the deal over the line; Chelsea are looking for remuneration in the region of 12 million after dropping their initial demand from 25 million.
As per reports, the player has communicated his desire to leave Chelsea for Inter Milan to the club hierarchy, making way for an agreement to be reached quickly. Furthermore, the Blues will attempt to use the situation to their advantage by asking for a player in return – they were linked with centre-backs Alessandro Bastoni and Milan Skriniar recently – but Inter seem unwilling to include their assets in any such agreements.
Lukaku returned to Chelsea last summer for a club-record fee and started off strongly, scoring fifteen minutes into his second debut for the club against rivals Arsenal. However, an additional 14 goals in 43 appearances, a mid-season interview that severed his ties with the Blues’ faithful, concerns over his adaptability to Thomas Tuchel’s system, and injury troubles combined to ensure his homecoming wasn’t a happy one.
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