Fabrizio Romano always reveals some hot stuff on his “Daily Briefing” for Caughtoffside, and we’re delighted to see some Chelsea news there today.
It’s all to do with Romelu Lukaku, who said goodbye to the Euros qualifiers with a bang this week, lashing in 4 goals to end up as the record breaking top scorer.
That continues a strong start to the season for the Belgian, who has looked better and better since arriving at Roma late in the summer transfer window.
They are obviously keen to buy him, and such a deal could be easier to pull off than expected. According to Romano, while there isn’t a watertight purchase option written in to the loan deal, there is a “gentleman’s agreement” in the deal which means both parties know where they stand:
“From what I’m told, Romelu Lukaku has something like a release clause, but not a proper release clause,” Romano said.
“There is a gentleman’s agreement between the player’s agents and Chelsea, because they don’t want a situation like a few months ago in the summer transfer window when they had to negotiate with Juventus, then with Inter, then with Roma – it was a very complicated summer for Chelsea around the Lukaku story, and so there is now a possibility for him to leave for €40m – and that’s not just for Roma, that’s for any club.
“From what I’m told, Roma still have no clarity on what will happen next season with some key figures, such as manager Jose Mourinho and director Tiago Pinto – it’s therefore too early for Roma to decide if they can pay that money for Lukaku. We’ll have to see around March/April when things will become more clear.”
We can’t see Roma backing out now, and we can’t see Chelsea standing in the attacker’s way either. They’ve been burned too many times trying to get more money for him, and they will sensibly take the cash now rather than roll the dice again.
