Romelu Lukaku Absent from Chelsea Training Session
According to Italian media, Romelu Lukaku does not want to return to London because he wants to push a trade from Chelsea to Inter Milan.
Lukaku joined the Blues for £97.5 million from Inter in the summer of 2021, but had a difficult season before being loaned back to the Nerazzurri last season.
Simone Inzaghi’s side want to bring the Belgian back this summer but have yet to provide a proposal that will satisfy Chelsea, who want to reduce the financial blow and are willing to accept roughly £34 million.
Juventus has also expressed interest, as has Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal, with whom Lukaku has so far expressed no interest.
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And, according to Gazzetta dello Sport, the 30-year-old Lukaku, who scored 14 goals in 37 appearances across all competitions last season, will not report for training at Chelsea’s Cobham base.
According to Mail Sport, the club has delayed the return of three undesired talents – Lukaku, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Hakim Ziyech – in order to offload them.
That implies they will arrive once new manager Mauricio Pochettino and his 29-man squad return from a pre-season tour in America.
Chelsea has been keen to prevent the headache of a first pre-season campaign under Pochettino being exacerbated by players being divided into too many different groups at Cobham.
Another wantaway star, Christian Pulisic, has sealed his departure before returning to Cobham and will have a medical with AC Milan on Wednesday.
Despite the revised return date, Lukaku is alleged to be unwilling to return to training or even travel back to London in order to smooth the way for a deal to Inter.
On his Instagram feed, he has recently uploaded several photographs of himself training alone.
They purport to show the Belgian at the posh Rixos Belek resort in Turkey’s Antalya region.
He worked out in a black tank top and black Nike shorts, sipping from a water bottle, before posing in swim shorts in the ‘Club Prive’ section where he appears to be staying.
According to Gazzetta, he is ‘just thinking’ about returning to the San Siro after rejecting transfers to Inter rivals AC Milan and Juventus, and he ‘knows’ that he will not be playing at Stamford Bridge next season.
‘Reliable’ Belgian lawyer Sebastian Ledure is believed to have called Chelsea on Monday and again on Wednesday.
Inter’s current stance is that they will not pay £34 million (€40 million), even if it is £5 million less than their initial price announced at the end of June.
Lukaku’s decision is most likely an attempt to persuade Blues chairman Todd Boehly to reduce his asking price.
Chelsea may also be interested in offloading the 108-cap international’s large salary, especially considering his obvious desire to depart.
