Romelu Lukaku to Everton rumors take over Twitter, while reports suggest he won't extend with Chelsea

Diego Costa is officially a Chelsea player now, and with Romelu Lukaku having shown a severe allergy to competition for minutes in the past, rumors of his impending exit are sure to be circulating until either his future with the club is settled or the transfer window closes. As the summer window is just getting rolling, here's the latest story making it's way around Liverpool:

According to a rumour from within the Everton stores... Workers in there have been told to prepare shirts with "Lukaku 10" on the back. #EFC

— Everton Supporters (@EFCsupporters) July 17, 2014

Meanwhile in Italy, Gianluca DiMarzio is reporting that Lukaku was on the radar of Juventus, and that he won't be signing an extension to stay with the Blues.

Morata will join Juventus, but the Bianconeri had a backup option just in case. In the last few hours they had contacted the agent for Lukaku, the Belgian striker Has Two years left on His deal with Chelsea but he will not extend it. It remains to be seen if Allegri wants 4 strong striker, but Lukaku wants an opportunity to play Which makes this a difficult deal, Juventus However considering it is even after Morata's acquisition.

While I have no idea how valid the Everton rumor is, it does make a certain degree of sense if the DiMarzio report is true. DiMarzio has established himself a good enough track record that I'd be inclined to trust this latest nugget, so it might be time to start pondering where Lukaku will be sold as opposed to where he'll be heading on loan.

From a personal standpoint, that would be one of the most disappointing developments in recent memory. The Belgian is exactly the sort of prospect that I absolutely love, with out of this world physical tools and limitless potential. He's nowhere near a world class player at this stage of his development, but if he works hard and improves his close control, there's no reason to believe he can't become one of the elite strikers on the planet.

Unfortunately for Lukaku (and Chelsea fans as well), the player seems have developed an aversion to any sort of competition for places. While the player was clearly as good an option as our misfiring trio last year, he's still extremely raw, and probably wouldn't be a particularly wonderful option at this point to lead the Chelsea line. At the very least, any top club should have some top shelf competition for the player, one who has enough technical ability to help cover for the Belgian's lack of polish.

Assuming that Lukaku is heading for the exits, and that appears to be a relatively safe assumption at this point, Chelsea will almost certainly be in the market for a quality backup to Diego Costa this season. While Patrick Bamford impressed on loan last season and during yesterday's friendly with Wycombe, trusting him as the primary backup to Costa probably isn't a wise idea. We've also got the unsellable Fernando Torres on the books, but relying on Torres as little as humanly possible seems like the wisest course of action possible.

I'm still holding out hope that Lukaku will simply shut his mouth, work his tail off, and push Diego Costa hard for a starting role at Chelsea. Unfortunately, it's looking less likely that this will actually happen, and more likely that Lukaku will simply become another large transfer fee for Chelsea to reinvest. It's all rather disappointing.