August 08, (THEWILL) – The big money transfer deals of the current transfer season took their time but they are surely coming especially after the reported attempts to bring Belgian forward Romelu Lukaku from Serie A champions Inter Milan to Stamford Bridge have apparently yielded fruits with the direct intervention of club owner Roman Abramovich.
Lukaku is expected to undergo a medical on Sunday ahead of that move to the UEFA Champions League winning side. The medical is scheduled to take place in Belgium, before the 28-year-old will board a flight to the London base of the English Premier League side where he is expected to be unveiled.
The paperwork has been sorted and Chelsea have agreed a fee of £97.5 million to get the striker back into their first-team squad and it will stand as the new club record for a player. THEWILL recalls that Lukaku had initially played with the Blues but he failed to impress enough to keep a steady shirt in that 2011 – 2014 period.
His star began to truly shine when he left Stamford Bridge and moved to Everton. There he was impressive enough to bring Manchester United to the doors of Everton asking for his services. He continued to score great goals at Man U but accepted to move to Italy citing a sense of not being appreciated by a section of the United fanbase.
Lukaku, who helped Inter break Juventus grip on the Serie A title, played for Belgium at recently concluded Euro 2020 and was his typical impressive self before they lost 2-1 to eventual winners Italy, at the quarter-final stage of the continental competition.
Although he returned to pre-season training with Inter, the five-year deal worth around 13 million euros a year, after tax that he has now signed with Chelsea will see him don the Blue colours of the Stamford Bridge side for the incoming EPL campaign.
One huge factor that played out in Chelsea’s favour was that the financial impact of the coronavirus on
Inter’s bottom line left the club needing to raise funds. This came in contrast the club’s heavy backing of the transfer business of former manager Antonio Conte as they built a title-winning squad.
Conte had intended to keep that momentum going and strengthen the squad for more titles but was informed that the club faced a tight prospect if they did not sell off some prized assets, which the Italian coach could not stomach and left his post by mutual consent.
It will be good business for both sides as Chelsea managed to keep the fee under £100 million, while Inter Milan will receive the total in cash and can do much with the fresh financial injection. Also gaining from the move is Manchester United, based on their deal with Inter when Lukaku moved from Old Trafford to San Siro.
United will pocket around €4 million from the deal at Lukaku will further enrich Man U after having left in 2019. That agreement relates to a percentage of the total sale fee, as opposed to just profit made from any move of the striker within the bounds of the agreed timeframe.
His big money move is only days away from Manchester City’s breaking of the English transfer record when they parted with a reported fee of £100 million to prise attacking midfielder Jack Grealish from the grips of his boyhood club Aston Villa.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
