you can now get a NUMBER_TOKEN-day trial to experience the athletic for free visit the link in the description below to try it now to some romelu lukaku might be seen as a consolation prize or just a plan b chelsea's desire to buy erling holland is well known and has been a major talking point since this year's winter transfer window but it would be wrong to assume that the man that they actually ended up buying was only added to the wish list in the last few weeks the west london club may have already had horland in mind before thomas tuckel replaced frank lampard's coach in late january but it didn't take the german long to assess the options at his disposal and feel that chelsea were lacking a top-class traditional number nine by early spring it's understood that tukel had not only given his backing to making an attempt for borussia dortmund's horland but had also earmarked lukaku as another candidate he'd like to lead the line in NUMBER_TOKEN-NUMBER_TOKEN and this is the story of how that deal happened now chelsea knew that this wasn't going to be straightforward lukaku had been loving life in italy since joining inter from manchester united he felt truly appreciated unlike during his eight years in england and that impressive NUMBER_TOKEN league goals last season helped secure into their first serie a title for NUMBER_TOKEN years in may however inters financial troubles were clear for all to see when they lobbied for NUMBER_TOKEN million euros from investors oak tree capital management in late may to ease some of the pressures on their bank balance and as such it was plain that inter needed to sell some of their best players lukaku was said to be off limits but that didn't stop chelsea from asking about him at a meeting soon after the end of last season and sources have told the athletic that chelsea left those discussions confident that they could agree a price for lukaku if they pursued that deal things then went quiet for over a month with the player heading off on a post-euro NUMBER_TOKEN holiday initially to the u.s he was soon joined by mino raiola's replacement as his agent federico pesterello who enjoys a good bomb with chelsea director marina granoskaya lukaku reported for pre-season training at inter on july the NUMBER_TOKENth and he made a point of talking to the in-house tv channel about the season ahead and how much he was looking forward to it however within a fortnight he had done a complete u-turn and decided to return to stamford bridge why is that well in short unfinished business how he was treated by chelsea in his three years there has been a great source of motivation throughout his career lukaku made just NUMBER_TOKEN appearances and from day one he was made to feel that he was not good enough primarily by then coach andre vs boas there was also a realization that he needed to improve a recognition that this was a significant step up in class from his days dominating belgium top flight defenses at NUMBER_TOKEN in the lander leg shirt now given that passed chelsea's willingness to pay nearly
START_SPONSOR_TOKEN you can now get a NUMBER_TOKEN-day trial to experience the athletic for free visit the link in the description below to try it END_SPONSOR_TOKEN