How Chelsea are set to lose €50m on Lukaku

Robin Bairner

• 21 Oct 2022 11:38 BST
• 2 min read

Chelsea have already accepted defeat in their bid to get the best out of Romelu Lukaku during his second spell at the club.

According to Gazzetta dello Sport, the Blues, along with a little help from rapper Jay-Z, have already agreed to loan Lukaku to Inter for the 2023/24 season and will thereafter look to sell him to the reigning Serie A champions.

It is a deal that is set to cost the club millions, with Lukaku having arrived for a Premier League record sum of €115 million in the summer of 2021 from Inter. After a return of 15 goals in 44 games during his first season back at the club, he was promptly offloaded back to the Italian club.

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Although it will be easier for the hierarchy at Stamford Bridge to swallow this loss given that the initial transfer was made under the guidance of Roman Abramovich, it still represents a humiliating back down from the Blues and will serve as a message to Todd Boehly and his Clearlake investors about the dangers of buying big.

But just how much could Chelsea lose on the deal?

How Lukaku could cost Chelsea €50m

Gazzetta dello Sport do not indicate just what sort of price is being discussed for Lukaku’s permanent transfer, and in reality it would be surprising if a figure was fixed upon this in the coming months. While it may be in Chelsea’s interests to have a deal set in stone, Inter will want to see the performance of the Belgium international upon his return to the club, particularly since he has struggled due to injury issues.

Presently, Lukaku is valued at €54m by FootballTransfers – less than half the figure they paid for him. This goes hand in hand with his decline in fortunes. Indeed, Chelsea did not dramatically overpay for Lukaku, who hit a career-high valuation of €141m in January 2020 while with Inter, it is simply what has followed has been catastrophic.

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If he were to move for around his market valuation once more, the Blues would have a loss of €61m on the transfer fee. However, Inter have paid a loan fee of €8m plus potentially €3m to follow in bonuses, taking Chelsea’s net loss on Lukaku’s fee to a still staggering €50m.