There is a surprising new development in the Juventus pursuit of Romelu Lukaku, with reports this evening that Chelsea are not interested in signing Dusan Vlahovic.
It was believed that the Bianconeri were prepared to offer Vlahovic to the Stamford Bridge side in exchange for Lukaku plus €40m in cash.
However, this evening Sky Sport Italia reporter Fabrizio Romano and Ben Jacobs in England both maintain that Chelsea have no intention of doing any deal for Vlahovic.
Their representatives contacted Juventus to inform them that the gap between their evaluation of Vlahovic is far too high and although they “respect” the player, they will not be going any further with an exchange idea.
Chelsea feel Lukaku plus €20m and €5m in bonuses is a fair offer, whereas Juventus continue to demand €40m in cash.
This boosts the Serbian’s hopes of remaining and he started this afternoon’s friendly against the Juventus NextGen youth team, scoring two goals.
He could still depart this summer, with Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich looking for centre-forwards, depending on how the Kylian Mbappé and Harry Kane situations unfold.
There had already been reports that Juventus were determined to bring in Lukaku regardless of the Vlahovic issue, although raising the funds to buy him for €35m will be increasingly difficult without selling the Serbian.
Meanwhile, today fans repeatedly chanted ‘We do not want Lukaku’ during their in-house friendly test and ultras unveiled insulting banners mocking the former Inter striker.