Romelu Lukaku is ready to reject a potential move to AC Milan this summer despite his underwhelming first season back at Chelsea.
Lukaku’s £97.5m move from Inter Milan last summer was hoped to be the difference to transform Chelsea into genuine title challengers once again, though despite a strong start to the season, the form of both player and club have drastically tailed off, with the Blues now in a scrap to finish in the top four.
The Belgian netted three goals in his first three Premier League appearances for the club since his return, though has since added just two more to his tally and has dropped down the pecking order at Stamford Bridge.
Eight of Lukaku’s last nine appearances have come off the bench, while he was an unused substitute in Chelsea’s 1-0 defeat to Everton on Sunday afternoon with Thomas Tuchel turning to Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech instead of the former Toffees striker.
According to the Evening Standard, the 28-year-old is said to be ‘increasingly frustrated by his lack of opportunites’, with Tuchel’s decision not to use him at Goodison Park with his side trailing ‘surprising sources close to Lukaku’.
The striker has a strained relationship with the Chelsea boss, the striker’s comments in an interview with Sky Italia in December doing him no favours as he openly discussed his difficulties to adapt to the German’s style of play.
Lukaku has been linked with a return to Italy, with Serie A leaders AC Milan said to be interested, though according to the report, the former Inter player would ‘reject’ the opportunity to join the Rossoneri – something that is hardly a surprise given his allegiances to their Milan rivals and his attempts to mend fences with his ill-advised Sky Italia interview.
He would also have ‘no interest’ in joining Newcastle, who would be one of the only sides who would be able to afford a large transfer fee as well as his £300,000-a-week wages.
