Inter Milan sporting director Piero Ausilio has confirmed that the club are hoping to sign Romelu Lukaku this summer. The 30-year-old striker faces an increasingly uncertain future at Chelsea following the expiration of his loan at the San Siro.
Lukaku, who sees his contract at Stamford Bridge expire in 2026, featured 25 times for the Nerazzurri in the Serie A last term, scoring 10 goals. The Belgium international suffered numerous injuries at the start of the season but, once he got into his groove, he quickly built a head of steam.
While Inter are eager to secure his services on a permanent basis, they're said to be short on cash. According to The Telegraph, last month, Chelsea refused the Italian outfit's bid to take Lukaku on another loan.
The report states that the Belgian has rejected a lucrative offer from a Saudi Arabian club in a bid to force a move back to Italy. It's said that Inter could unlock the financial power to sign Lukaku if they manage to offload Andre Onana, who has been closely linked with both Chelsea and Manchester United recently.
With pre-season already underway at Cobham, all parties will be hoping to find a resolution sooner rather than later. As quoted by 90min, Ausilio said: "Lukaku is one of our important objectives. The whole sporting department wants him at Inter.
"But for now he’s a Chelsea player. The dialogue remains open. They don’t want to send the player on loan. They said we must buy him. So we are now evaluating whether there is a possibility to sign him outright.
"I don’t like talking about priorities," added the Inter chief. "Lukaku knows very well that we want to bring him back here. Let’s see if we can find a solution."
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Then, on the future of Onana, Ausilio confirmed that Inter have not yet received any offers which have met their expectations. The 51-year-old said: "Right now, Onana is Inter’s goalkeeper. He’s one of the strengths of the team and we would like to continue with strong players.
"If opportunities arise, we’ll evaluate and listen, but up till now, they haven’t arrived or haven’t met our expectations. Onana’s topic ends here. The pre-season starts on July 13 and he will rejoin the group.
"If something comes up in the next 15-20 days, we will evaluate it. Right now there are no dates or deadlines or the desire to deprive ourselves of any player."
