Inter Milan open to ‘rather high’ obligatory clause for next Romelu Lukaku loan — report

Romelu Lukaku will technically be “back” at Chelsea in a couple days, when his loan to Inter Milan officially ends at the end of the month, but he is not expected to report to preseason at any point, and is instead expected to engineer another loan move back to his (current) heart-club.

Inter’s hierarchy have been reluctant to admit that this will be the obvious outcome of the summer transfer window — somehow, someway — and that not even the amusing speculation of the Calciomercato will stand in the way of this eventuality.

But speaking of rumblings, Gianluca Di Marzio reports that a potential solution is set to be “proposed” by Inter soon, namely that they will take Lukaku on loan once again, but this time with “an obligation to buy set at a rather high amount”. However, and this is presumably the key bit enabling this solution from a cash-strapped team, with that amount “to be paid over several years”.

I’m not the one calling the shots, but assuming that “a rather high amount” does in fact translate to at least a decent amount (say, €40m at the very minimum, which was the number thrown around by the aforementioned speculation), I’d be more than happy with a payment plan. (I’d even be okay with a Juan Cuadrado-esque multi-year loan lease, like the one agreed with Juventus back in 2016, which eventually saw us recover most of our investment.)

As Captain Picard liked to say, make it so.