Chelsea have decided to abandon negotiations with Juventus for Dusan Vlahovic in an exchange with Romelu Lukaku, as the gap between their valuations of the Serbian is circa €20m.
Sky Sport Italia and others reported this evening that the Premier League side had suddenly pulled out of talks and informed Juve that they were no longer interested in Vlahovic at all.
More details are starting to emerge with suggestions they realised the difference in valuation of the players was simply too big to realistically continue talks and it was better to look elsewhere instead.
Chelsea had believed the proposal of Lukaku plus €20m cash and another €5m in add-ons was a fair one.
On the other hand, Juventus were refusing to part with Vlahovic for less than Lukaku plus €40m in cash.
There are some fundamental differences here in the way the two clubs value the players.
Chelsea have seemingly put a figure of €40m on Lukaku, despite the fact he is not part of their plans for this season and Inter had hoped to do a deal for €35m.
Juve paid €81.6m plus up to another €10m in add-ons to sign Vlahovic from Fiorentina in January 2022.
They therefore consider him to be still worth at least €80m including add-ons, especially as he is still only 23 years of age.
That doesn’t necessarily mean either of the players are staying put.
Lukaku is still a target for Juventus and if Chelsea fail to find a buyer, they can send him to the Saudi Pro League in September, with their transfer window open until September 20.
As for Vlahovic, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich could need a striker depending on how the Kylian Mbappé and Harry Kane situations play out.
He never wanted Chelsea anyway, so why replace Lukaku with another Lukaku?