Romelu Lukaku’s agent has opened up about the widespread reports linking his client with Chelsea, urging Inter Milan fans to be patient for more details.
Chelsea have already failed with two separate offers to land the striker but he wants a return to Stamford Bridge – where he feels he has unfinished business – and Inter are prepared to accept another bid of around €130m (£110m).
Another round of talks is expected to take place between Chelsea and the the Serie A giants with a view to finding a resolution on Friday and there is optimism an agreement will be reached before the summer transfer deadline.
Inter supporters have been far from impressed, given their owners, Suning Holdings Group, had promised that no more ‘big’ sales would be made after Achraf Hakimi’s €60m (£51m) move to PSG this summer.
Some furious Inter fans have bombarded the Instagram page of Lukaku’s agent, Federico Pastorello, to vent their anger – which prompted one fan to issue an apology on Thursday.
‘I apologise on behalf of Inter fans for the bad words in these comments… everything is fine, but exaggerating in this way seems too much to me,’ the message said.
‘But if you can do what you can to keep Lukaku you would make many happy… Otherwise thanks anyway and good luck.’
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Responding with a message, which has been deleted, Pastorello said: ‘Thank you for these words of yours. You will be able to hear our reasons soon, however this turns out.’
However? Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel refused to be drawn into the speculation when asked about the rumours surrounding Lukaku this week.
‘I will not talk about players who don’t play in my squad,’ the German coach told reporters after Chelsea’s draw with Tottenham in this summer’s Mind Series.
‘Romelu Lukaku is a fantastic player but he’s a player from Inter and with all due respect, I will not talk about him in this situation.’
Tuchel added: ‘I think with the exit of Olivier Giroud, we could use a player who is used to playing with his back towards the goal, whose strengths are to keep maybe possession from long balls, that we can add this direct style of play to our portfolio.
‘This is a characteristic of player that is not Timo [Werner], is not Tammy [Abraham], is not Kai [Havertz]. This is a profile that we don’t have in the squad and could be useful but not for any cost and not in panic because no matter what happens, we will be competitive and we have trust in our guys.
‘We have trust that we can still develop, we still have young players in the offensive part of the game from whom we demand that they need to improve and we’re relaxed and very well aware of our situation at the same time.’
