As said by Mauricio Pochettino, and reported by Gazzetta, Romelu Lukaku was supposed to turn up for Chelsea’s pre-season training tomorrow. As his move to Inter edges closer however, he got an extended holiday until the 17th of July from Todd Boehly. Chelsea hope to close the transfer within the next week and that way Lukaku doesn’t have to be involved with their training camp.
Lukaku wants to close the Chelsea page once and for all, and the only way he considers to do so is to transfer outright to Inter. He has said no several times to Al-Hilal, who offered him a very attractive signing fee and salary, but he was not interested. He also did not take into account the approach of Milan or Juventus, as he has only ever wanted Inter.
On his end, Lukaku is happy with reducing his salary from €8.5 million to €7.5 million a season, to meet Inter’s needs. The Belgian striker sees Inter as the only option, and will be wanting to regain some of the form that he showed in the second half of last season. He notched 10 Serie A goals last year, but will be hoping to improve on that and replicate his goalscoring form which led him to 24 goals in the 2020/2021 season.
Japtej Ghura | GIFN
