Chelsea secure £38m transfer breakthrough as Stamford Bridge move nears completion

Chelsea and Napoli have reportedly had a breakthrough in their bid to resolve the future of wantaway striker Romelu Lukaku.

After an unproductive first spell at Chelsea between 2011-14 for Lukaku, where he failed to score a goal in 15 appearances, the Belgium international headed back to Stamford Bridge in 2021 for a much larger fee and round two.

The 6ft 3in forward made the £17m switch from Anderlecht to Chelsea 13 years ago, but 10 years later, he would sign for a whopping £97.5m from Inter Milan on a five-year contract.

On his second debut for the west London outfit, the former Manchester United attacker looked every bit of the club-record fee Chelsea splashed out on him.

Lukaku dominated Arsenal’s defence in a powerful all-round display but that was, arguably, as good as it got for the Belgian.

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He ended up scoring just eight goals in the Premier League in the 2021/22 season and ever since then he has had loan spells at Inter and Roma – without hitting the heights of years gone by.

For much of this summer, the ex-Everton man has set his sights on a permanent Stamford Bridge exit, with new Napoli boss Antonio Conte intent on reuniting with his former player.

Talks began over a possible swap deal for Napoli’s Victor Osimhen and Lukaku, both of whom are on contracts that run until 2026, plus a hefty fee on top of that for the Italian side.

However, it later emerged that the Serie A team wanted to sell the Nigerian international rather than entertain a player-plus-cash deal.

Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea, and more, were put off by the 25-year-old’s monumental £110m release clause – but reports suggest they are now willing to accept £85m for the ex-Lille ace.

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If that is to occur, the Blues will need to sell some of the players from their bloated first-team squad, with Todd Boehly’s team considering offers for Benoit Badiashile, Axel Disasi, Trevoh Chalobah and Noni Madueke.

Transfer breakthrough over Lukaku

TEAMtalk previously revealed that it was just a matter of time before an agreement for 31-year-old Lukaku was struck, but more work needs to be done to secure the services of Osimhen.

While Lukaku has been training on his own, a lot of progress has been made over a possible transfer.

Now, Fabrizio Romano claims a verbal agreement is in place between Chelsea and Napoli for Lukaku to join the Italian team permanently.

He adds the Blues have accepted a fixed fee of €30m (£25.4m), with add-ons potentially taking up the fee to €45m (£38.1m).

Lukaku will reportedly sign a three-year contract until 2027 at Napoli, which will finally bring to a close his Chelsea nightmare.

Whether Osimhen heads the other way remains to be seen.