Chelsea’s new owners have been in direct contact with Romelu Lukaku in a bid to resolve the future of the club’s record signing.
The Belgium international returned to Stamford Bridge last summer and was billed as the final piece in Thomas Tuchel’s jigsaw.
Lukaku, who failed to make the grade at the west London club during his first spell earlier in his career, arrived 12 months ago in a record £97million transfer from Inter Milan.
After a bright start, Lukaku’s form deteriorated and appeared to be ill-suited to the tactics employed by Thomas Tuchel.
A controversial interview Lukaku gave to Italian media further soured the relationship between the striker and his manager, who often turned to Kai Havertz in preference to the former Manchester United player during the second half of last season.
Luaku has made no secret of his desire to return to Inter this summer and, according to the Telegraph, Chelsea’s new owners, led by Todd Boehly, will not stand in the 29-year-old’s way as long as any deal suits the Blues.
Already Inter Milan are said to have baulked at the prospect of signing on a season-long loan deal after Chelsea demanded a one-off payment of £20million.
Boehley’s relationship with Lukaku’s representatives, Roc Nation, however, could help ensure a satisfactory resolution for all parties.
The American is a part-owner of both the LA Dodgers baseball and the LA Lakers basketball teams, who have done commercial and player-based business with Roc Nation. Lakers guard DJ Augustin is on the Roc rosta.
Regardless of Lukaku’s future, Chelsea are likely to be busy in the market this summer given their failure to keep pace with Manchester City and Liverpool last term, allied to the departures of Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen.
Addressing what he anticipates being a hectic summer, Chelsea’s technical director, Petr Cech, said on Friday: ‘I live on the phone! It will be a busy summer. We will plan, prepare and try to be as strong as we can next season.
‘I think everybody knows where we are in terms of the team. Of course we will try to strengthen the team.
‘We want to do the best possible and be ready to compete next season. It’s going to be a tough season with a World Cup in-between so we need to be ready for that.’
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