Chelsea have reportedly made a £50 million bid for Everton’s Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku according to Sky Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio. After seeing two bids for Alvaro Morata rejected, Antonio Conte is looking to test Everton’s resolve by making a bid to bring Lukaku back to the London based club. However, the Merseyside club have put a price tag of £65 million for the 23-year-old Belgian international.
Antonio Conte already has enough firepower on his side with Diego Costa, Loic Remy and his latest signing Michy Batshuayi. But he will look to add more firepower by bringing back the first choice Belgian striker Lukaku. However, Ronald Koeman is keen on keeping him at Goodison Park for another season and so the bid is likely to be rejected by the officials at Everton.
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His agent Mino Raiola has also confirmed that the Merseyside blues want to keep Lukaku with all their resources. It was also rumoured that the striker wants out of the club and play for a club that can win silverware and provide him a chance to play in the Champions League.
The Belgian striker shot to fame in 2010 when he scored 20 goals for his club Anderlecht and became the highest scorer in the Belgian first division. Chelsea paid £10 million to get him to Stamford Bridge and after a year in the reserves, he was loaned out to West Brom where he scored 17 goals in 35 appearances which also included a hat-trick against champions Manchester United.
Success at Everton
Lukaku was sold to the Toffees in the summer of 2014 for £28 million by then Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho. Since then Lukaku has scored 28 goals in 73 league games for the Merseyside club. He was loaned to Everton for the 2013-14 season also where he managed to find the back of the net 15 times in 31 games. He had an impressive 2015-16 season with the toffees by scoring 25 goals and becoming the third highest scorer in the Premier League with 18 goals behind Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy.
The Stamford Bridge club have signed only two players this summer, N’Golo Kante arrived from Leicester, and Michy Batshuayi arrived from Marseille. After landing two of the biggest transfer targets in Europe, Chelsea have seen their bids for Morata, Leonardo Bonucci and Kalidou Koulibaly rejected which has left Conte desperate to break the jinx of signing another big name.
It is highly unlikely that Chelsea will match Everton’s asking price of £65 million. And after Diego Costa assured his commitment to Conte and Chelsea, it will be interesting to see if they pursue Everton with a revised bid or make do with Costa, Batshuayi and Remy.
For all major confirmed transfers of 2016/17 click here
