Chelsea have reportedly agreed a £34million deal to sell Tammy Abraham to Roma ahead of Romelu Lukaku’s arrival at the club.
Arsenal, West Ham and Atalanta have all been linked with moves for the England international but Jose Mourinho’s Roma are now close to securing his signature, according to Sky Italia.
Abraham has been at Chelsea since the age of seven and played 82 matches for the Serie A club since breaking into the first-team six years ago.
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Abraham scored 15 Premier League goals during the 2019-20 campaign but he fell down the pecking order after Thomas Tuchel took over from Frank Lampard as manager in January.
With Roma agreeing a £34m deal to sign Abraham from the London side, the player now has to decide if he wants to join the Italian team, who are currently managed by former Chelsea boss Mourinho.
Roma emerged as the frontunners to sign Abraham as the Blues were unwilling to sell their academy graduate to a Premier League rival, despite the interest from Arsenal and West Ham.
Abraham looks set to leave Stamford Bridge just as Romelu Lukaku completes a £97.5m transfer move to Chelsea, the club who sold him seven years ago.
Lukaku has completed the first part of his Chelsea medical and is expected to arrive at the club on Tuesday to be unveiled as their big-money signing.
Tuchel has been reluctant to discuss Lukaku’s transfer but did concede that the number nine role is an area he wants to strengthen after Olivier Giroud’s move to AC Milan.
‘We lost Olivier Giroud who played a crucial role in the club,’ Tuchel told Sky Sports. ‘He was the kind of profile who likes to play with his back to goal, who likes to hold up balls, who creates space for Werner, Havertz, Pulisic; who is ready to fight physically with defenders.
‘This is the kind of profile that we don’t have in our squad right now and that we are looking for. It’s still not the moment to talk about names because we have nobody signed yet and we will show all the respect to other clubs.
‘Romelu is one of the guys like Haaland at Dortmund, Lewandowski at Bayern, Harry Kane at Tottenham, who is a real No 9 who loves to score and who has a presence in the box.
‘But [his] is the kind of profile we’re looking for and if it is possible to convince agents and clubs we will do our best.’
