Secret Lukaku loan agreement shows how much Chelsea don’t want him back
Robin Bairner
- Updated: 23 Jul 2022 20:34 BST
- 3 min read
It was no secret that Chelsea and Romelu Lukaku had a strained relationship in recent months, yet was not evident was just how fractured the connection between the player and the club had become.
Although everything started well for Lukaku after he made a British record move of €115 million from Inter to Chelsea last August, things quickly began to fall apart and by Christmas the Belgium international striker was begging the Serie A side publicly to take him back.
No deal materialised but Lukaku got back to work at Stamford Bridge. He never regained his best level, though, and by the summer was ripe for a move. There were no public strops from the forward or further declarations of unhappiness, yet there was an understanding that he would be moved on.
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Inter did indeed come back in for him this summer to secure a loan deal, which the Daily Mail reports is agreed in principle to stretch beyond the one-season agreement that was made public when it was concluded.
No way back for Lukaku at Chelsea
This means that Lukaku could repeat his goal-scoring heroics at San Siro and there is apparently no prospect of him returning to Chelsea before the summer of 2024, by which time he will be one year from the end of his Stamford Bridge contract and, therefore, primed for a transfer.
It was known that Chelsea wanted to sell Lukaku on a permanent deal and that Lukaku’s large wage demands would be too much for Inter to handle, yet it was not appreciated that the Blues’ were quite so eager to sever all ties with a man who netted eight goals for them in the Premier League last season in just 25 appearances.
Thomas Tuchel’s side have since recruited Raheem Sterling to bolster their attacking options, although FootballTransfers understands that the Chelsea manager is keeping his options with regard to options in the transfer market.
As for Lukaku, though, it seems that his time at Chelsea is finished.
