With just over a week of the summer transfer window left to run, the future of Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku remains a mystery.
Lukaku has reiterated his desire to leave Stamford Bridge after returning from a season on loan at Inter Milan, but Chelsea is running out of time to offload the 30-year-old after deals with Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal and Inter fell through.
Lukaku rejected an offer from Al-Hilal early in the transfer window, believing he is still capable of playing at the highest level.
Inter were keen to bring the Belgian forward back to the club permanently, having previously been on their books from 2019-2021 before moving to Chelsea, with a reported fee of £32m ($A63m) including add-ons agreed between the two clubs.
But Inter were furious when they discovered Lukaku had been secretly negotiating a potential move to their rivals Juventus – with those talks beginning while Internazionale were preparing for a Champions League final.
It is a significant backflip from the player who said in 2021 he would ‘never’ sign for Inter’s biggest rivals Juventus and AC Milan.
He said: “If Juventus or AC Milan will call me in the future? Never, never.”
When Inter found out about Lukaku’s negotiations with Juventus, they immediately pulled the pin on the deal.
“There are targets that you think you’d get, but in the end, it doesn’t happen,” club director Beppe Marotta said this week.
“I can only say that Lukaku left a huge disappointment. I don’t know where he’ll go now, there aren’t many options left, I don’t think he’ll be back in Italy, there are just 10 days remaining.”
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According to The Telegraph, Lukaku has been training with Chelsea’s Under-21 side and is yet to speak with new manager Mauricio Pochettino.
Chelsea still refuses to allow Lukaku to leave on loan, while Juventus is currently the only club actively pursuing him, The Telegraph reports.
Juventus has already approached Chelsea with a couple of swap-deal offers for Lukaku, both of which included getting Dusan Vlahovic off their wage bill, but Chelsea turned the proposals down.
Without selling Vlahovic or other similarly high-profile players, Juventus don’t have the ability to sign Lukaku given financial fair play restrictions.
Given the Blues have continued their big-spending ways this transfer window, they will be keen to cash in on Lukaku rather than pay his hefty wages for a season that could very well be spent in exile from the first team.
Lukaku, who is quickly tunning out of options, needs Chelsea to lower their asking price to facilitate a move to Juventus, or for that club to offload Vlahovic to facilitate a move.
The summer transfer window closes on September 1, but Saudi Arabia’s transfer window closes almost a week later – meaning that could become his final option should a Juventus deal fail to materialise.