Chelsea could use sneaky swap tactics to shift Romelu Lukaku and bring in another talent | OneFootball

In all the fun and games of Chelsea’s transfer window so far, we’ve not heard much about one of the lynchpins of the whole summer.

As it has been for the last few years, shifting Romelu Lukaku has become one of the essential ingredients to a good window. We’ve been forced to loan him out time after time as other clubs just can’t pay us what we want, but now he’s just a couple of years off from his contract expiring we can start to get his price down to a level where teams are actually willing to engage with us.

One report coming out today – and one we really think sounds promising – comes from Area Napoli, who say that the striker wants to leave Chelsea permanently (obviously) and that the Neapolitans could provide an exit.

They’ve now got Antonio Conte in charge, the man who got the best out of Lukaku at Inter Milan, so it’s clear to see where these ideas are coming from. After 21 goals in all competitions last season for a pretty poor Roma team, it’s clear that the belief is that Conte can really get Lukaku back to his top level.

Romelu Lukaku of Belgium celebrates after scoring a goal.

The issues with a deal

It won’t be an easy one to pull off – the finances of clubs in Italy makes it almost impossible for them to sign major players, especially on major wages. But if Victor Osimhen is sold (which looks more than possible) then a cut price deal could be on the cards.

We’ve also seen Chelsea engage in plenty of swap-type deals and rumours this summer, a tactic Italian clubs are famous for employing. Could we see something similar on the cards here? A young Napoli talent being valued at more than expected heading in the opposite direction to Lukaku later in the window?