According to reports in Italy, the Zhang family forced Inter directors to sell Romelu Lukaku to Chelsea and neither Beppe Marotta nor Simone Inzaghi took it too well.
The striker’s move to Stamford Bridge is not a done deal yet as the Nerazzurri rejected Chelsea’s €100m bid plus Marcos Alonso earlier this week.
However, according to multiple reports, the Premier League giants are now ready to put €130m on the table, meeting Inter’s asking price for their star striker.
Lukaku has already informed the club that he wants to return to Chelsea, so the Nerazzurri are already looking for possible alternatives on the market.
Inter need to end the summer transfer window with a profit of €80m and cut the wage bill by 20 per cent. Achraf Hakimi’s €71m move to PSG was not enough for the club to balance the books.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the club’s owners Suning, forced Inter directors to sell Lukaku for €130m as they didn’t see any improvement in the plan to reduce costs.
Inter didn’t cash in from the sale of any other player with Joao Mario, who rescinded his contract by mutual agreement to join Benfica as a free agent, while Arturo Vidal rejected a move to Flamengo and Dalbert joined Cagliari on loan.
The pink paper reports the club’s directors, including Beppe Marotta and coach Simone Inzaghi, are against Lukaku’s sale and Il Corriere dello Sport describes the new Inter tactician as ‘furious.’
The former Lazio boss had ensured Hakimi would have been the only star to leave the club in the summer, but, clearly, that won’t be the case.
Il Corriere dello Sport also reports Suning’s decision to force Lukaku’s exit made Inter directors Marotta, Piero Ausilio and Dario Baccin so unhappy that some of them could decide to leave after the summer transfer window given that their contracts expire in June 2022 and they haven’t signed a contract deal yet.
Both the Rome-based paper and Tuttosport also mention that Lukaku may not be the only Inter star to leave the club as Stefan de Vrij is considering his future at the club.