Chelsea make Romelu Lukaku stance clear with Belgian set for summer exit

Chelsea will reject all loan offers for Romelu Lukaku as they look to offload him permanently this summer.

The Belgian has just seen his loan stint at Roma come to an end and he'll return to Stamford Bridge. That is his second successive season away from the Blues having had a year at Inter Milan prior to that.

Chelsea paid a then club-record £97.5m to land Lukaku back in 2021 but he failed to hit expectations and was allowed to leave after just 12 months. Now the west Londoners want to get him and his £325,000-a-week wages off their books - meaning they will accept around £37m, according to the BBC.

AC Milan and Napoli are both keen on Lukaku, but they are limited financially and cannot meet the asking price. Napoli have just appointed Antonio Conte, who won Serie A with Lukaku at Inter.

The Naples outfit were also tipped to put forward a swap deal for striker Victor Osimhen, but Chelsea are not interested in signing the Nigerian, who is valued at more than £100m. The Blues are in the market for a prolific frontman with Lukaku, who was at Thomas Tuchel signing, unable to fill that role.

The 31-year-old found the net with great regularity during his time at Everton, Manchester United and Inter. When he spent two years at the San Siro he hit the 30-goal barrier on both occasions, but in his sole campaign at Chelsea he scored just eight league goals.

Last summer the Belgian trained away from the first-team when Mauricio Pochettino was the man in charge. He was part of their pre-season preparations with the Argentine saying: "If the player and club's wish is to find a solution, it's not me, it's them".

Another of Lukaku's former managers, Jose Mourinho, has said he has "zero interest" in bringing the forward to his new club. Mourinho was recently appointed Fenerbahce boss and has insisted he will not be bringing any of his former players to Turkey.

"Names of my previous players, previous club, I want to make it 100 percent my word," he said. "I have zero interest in every player or any player from AS Roma, zero interest. It's not the time to rush. Not time to feel emotions. It is time to come and to make the things right which is what we try to do."