Chelsea have ended talks with Juventus over the exchange of Romelu Lukaku and Dusan Vlahovic.
The West London club did not make the deal after Juventus asked €40 million for Vlahovic and Lukaku. It is reported that the Blues are not interested in offering more than 20 million euros to Lukaku for the Bianconeri striker. Chelsea are looking for an answer for the 30-year-old Belgian striker, who signed for £97.5 million from Inter Milan in 2021.
Chelsea announced their 22/23 squad numbers on Tuesday and Lukaku was missing from the list. A return to Inter Milan, the club where he spent 22/23 seasons on loan, is “impossible” after club president Javier Zanetti accused Lukaku of leaving the club.
“Lukaku disappointed us. We were very disappointed. We expected a completely different behavior from Romelu, not only as a professional but also as a person.”
Chelsea are ready to explore other options to offload Lukaku, heading to the Saudi Arabian Pro League table. Inter Milan vice-president Javier Zanetti accused Romelu Lukaku of cheating after seeing how things were between the two sides. The striker has been declared a good fit for Chelsea as the Blues continue to struggle to sign the Belgian internation.