Everton reiterate world record asking price for Romelu Lukaku

Romelu Lukaku’s agent, Mino Raiola went on radio yesterday to issue a very public come-and-get-him plea, reminding Chelsea and Manchester United that Everton have apparently promised that they would let his client go if “certain clubs” came in with the “right” offer. We’re assuming it’s only those two teams, from an already very limited set of teams who could afford such a transfer, who are really in the running for Lukaku.

Everton’s response to that bit of agenting has been to remind everyone of their asking price: £100m. Last month, the local Liverpool Echo were the first to reveal this world record demand; now it’s The Times who are reporting the same number.

That’s a decent chunk of change, to be sure, £100m, even if it’s a potentially negotiable number.

It’s not my money and it’s not your money, but it is Chelsea’s money and there isn’t a limitless, FFP-compliant amount of it. That said, Chelsea (and our supposed £200m “war chest”) certainly could afford to spend that much right now on one player — we’ve raised more than £100m just through players sales alone in the last six months (Oscar + Bamford + Cuadrado + Begović + Atsu + Solanke) — but the world record price tag isn’t making the decision any easier.

Yes, we can spend that much to bring Lukaku back. But should we? Or should we spend slightly less on Morata? Take the risk on Belotti? Take an even bigger risk on Tammy Abraham (as backup at least)? Or should we just extend Costa and maybe add another option behind him?

It’s just too bad we didn’t include a buy-back or a sell-on clause on Lukaku three years ago. Oops.