Potential Chelsea target Romelu Lukaku not leaving Inter Milan before Antonio Conte — report

Former Chelsea boss Antonio Conte is on track to win the Scudetto in only his second season at Inter Milan, and end a decade-long trophy drought at the San Siro, though he’s not the only ex-Chelsea man involved in those efforts. Former prospect and player Romelu Lukaku has been producing the goods in front of goal, finding the back of the net 59 times in 85 matches across all competitions since joining from Manchester United.

When Conte was still Chelsea manager, we were strongly linked with Lukaku, but alas, that reunion never came to fruition. With Chelsea supposedly back on the market for a striker yet again, Lukaku has been an obvious name to add to our shortlist, which is indeed rather short and ambitious with Erling Braut Haaland at the top of it.

But Haaland looks ever increasingly unlikely to leave Borussia Dortmund this summer, and with Lukaku in prime form, it might make plenty of sense to try to go after him. However, according to the Daily Mail, Lukaku’s not looking to leave Inter as long as Conte’s the boss, and neither Chelsea nor anyone has much of a shot until then. In addition to the Blues, Manchester City, Barcelona, and Real Madrid have all been linked.

Suppose we can always hope that the ever-fiery Conte manages to pick a fight with the Inter hierarchy, just as he did at Chelsea. Letting Lukaku go is one of the biggest missteps in Chelsea’s recent player development, and having him back would be a costly, but welcome sight.