Top Chelsea earner ‘very likely’ to join Saudi club this summer after Pochettino agrees to cut-price sale

Chelsea are desperately trying to get Romelu Lukaku off the books and a fresh report has claimed that a move to Saudi Arabia is ‘very likely’ for him this summer.

This comes as a major boost to the Blues as they will have to part ways with several players in order to comply with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR).

As exclusively revealed by TEAMtalk, Chelsea could lose homegrown stars such as Conor Gallagher, Trevoh Chalobah and Armando Broja (on loan at Fulham) as selling academy graduates represents pure profit on the account books.

Any other players they can move on will also help and Lukaku is not in Mauricio Pochettino’s plans for the future, so he would have no problem selling him.

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The Belgian international earns an eye-watering £300,000 per week with Chelsea, making him the club’s joint-highest earner along with Raheem Sterling. 

Reports suggest that the Blues are willing to accept a fee of around £35m for Lukaku this summer – £62.5m less than what they paid for him in 2021.

Romelu Lukaku tipped to make Saudi switch

According to transfer journalist Rudy Galetti, Lukaku has emerged as one of the Saudi Pro League’s top targets for the summer as they aim to bring more big-name stars to the Middle East.

Another example is Mohamed Salah, who Al Ittihad look set to make another huge offer for after seeing a £150m bid rejected by Liverpool last summer.

“Romelu Lukaku is emerging among the main targets of the Saudi League.

“The PIF already approached the striker and also Chelsea, who want to sell Romelu – now on loan at Roma – permanently. To date, a move to appears to be a very likely scenario.”

Lukaku has spent most of his time since re-joining Chelsea on loan in Italy and signed for Roma on a season-long deal in August last year.

The 30-year-old has been in fine form for the Giallorossi, scoring 18 goals in 39 appearances across all competitions so far this term.

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Roma are interested in signing Lukaku permanently but will find it difficult to match his price tag and, above all, his wage demands.

Napoli have also been linked with the Chelsea loanee in recent days but everything now points towards the Belgian becoming the next big star to head to the Saudi Pro League.

It will be interesting to see if Chelsea are able to get back a little more than the £35m they initially expected for Lukaku from a rich club in the Gulf state this summer.