Chelsea evaluating Morata, Belotti options after Man Utd’s Lukaku coup — report

Manchester United appear to be well on their way to gazumping Chelsea for Romelu Lukaku, who was the Blues' main choice to replace Diego Costa this summer. Whether Lukaku was Emenalo’s choice or Conte’s or whoever’s, it hardly matters at this point. The 24-year-old looks set to join United for somewhere around 75m (+incentives) and a medical may be happening already. While Chelsea still have a chance to gazump the gazumpers with a late-late bid, it would also be prudent to start looking at other options if we haven’t already.

Previously, Chelsea were linked quite heavily with Álvaro Morata (supposedly Conte’s preference, though that seems to change according to whatever suits the latest narrative) and were also briefly linked with Andrea Belotti. It is thus no surprise that the latest out of Italy is to re-link Chelsea with those two options.

Neither of the two would be any cheaper than Lukaku, so if we were hung up over Big Rom’s price, we might want to start getting comfortable with the idea. The latest reports on Morata, who may or may not actually want out, indicated that Real Madrid were expecting to receive nearly £80 million to allow him to leave Santiago Bernabéu. Meanwhile, Belotti's release clause still stands at €100 million — roughly — and Torino will not let go of him for anything less.

(Ed.note: For what it’s worth, Morata is supposedly hoping to be young men again with Conte after United’s u-turn has “left him in limbo”.)

Neither of the options is without pros or cons, but with Costa saying his goodbyes to teammates, Chelsea will need to spend big one way or another.

Stay tuned!