Chelsea initiate Morata contact as Manchester United win Lukaku auction — report

It may be the middle of the night in England, but the Romelu Lukaku situation is developing faster than a transfer deadline day acquisition. Not an hour after news broke that Chelsea submitted (finally!) a bid to match Manchester United’s £75m (+incentives +Rooney) offer, United were back in with an improved bid and an even sweeter deal on Everton’s very own Wayne Rooney.

While Chelsea would probably have no problem stumping up the exta £5m either, now that we finally got comfortable with the prospect of paying £75m+, the Rooney situation is something we can’t quite match and much to everyone’s head-scratching, that appears to be playing a crucial role in this thing.

This whole agent vs. player thing continues to be a weird corollary and one that isn’t easy to understand. If Lukaku actually WANTS a Chelsea return, as he’s intimated in public and we’ve been led to believe for many moons, AND Chelsea have finally (finally!) gotten their act together and actually submitted a good enough bid, then what’s the problem? Lukaku employs this man called Mino Raiola, not the other way around! Sure, United increased the bid and we might not match it, but that would be as silly a move as any we’ve made, or not made as it were, so far.

Sure, Chelsea took a bit of convincing, but we’re here now. Come to daddy, Big Rom! Or not.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

While Chelsea appear to be panic-bidding on the former Chelsea great big hope — oh, by the way, thanks, José, for insisting that we don’t need a buy-back or even a sell-on; that’s worked out really well! — we are making steady progress in the contingency plans, which apparently do not include relying on Michy Batshuayi to be the hero we need and deserve. Sorry, Batsman!

Here’s Di Marzio as one of several who are reporting initial contact (again?) with Álvaro Morata after reporting earlier Chelsea’s consideration to do so, though it should be noted that Morata won’t be an easy or cheap ‘get’ either as warned by reports out of Spain earlier. Real Madrid have slapped a €90m price tag on the 24-year-old and right now the only way they’re even considering accepting that bid is if they can convince Kylian Mbappé to join them this summer.

This is probably not the last twist in either the Lukaku and Morata tale.

Stay tuned.