Chelsea are ready to step up their pursuit of Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku ahead of the summer transfer window, according to reports.
The Belgium international only played 15 times without scoring for the Blues during his three-year spell at Stamford Bridge earlier in this career, with Lukaku going on loan to West Brom and Everton in that time.
He eventually joined the Toffees permanently before his form led to Manchester United splashing out an initial £75m to take him to Old Trafford.
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Lukaku scored 42 goals in 96 matches for United but never truly settled as he came in for regular criticism, leaving for Inter Milan in 2019.
At the Nerazzurri, Lukaku has bagged 61 goals in 91 matches, with the Italian giants well on course to win the Serie A title this season.
And his impressive form at Inter hasn’t gone unnoticed with former club Chelsea and Premier League champions elect Manchester City reportedly keen.
The Sun claims Chelsea ‘will step up plans to re-sign Romelu Lukaku in a £90million-plus deal’ as the Belgian is seen as the ‘most achievable of boss Thomas Tuchel’s targets’.
The newspaper describes any transfer move for Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland as ‘out of reach’ with Man City in hot pursuit.
That means Chelsea are ‘turning to a player with proven Premier League experience’ with ‘frustration’ brewing over Timo Werner’s lack of goals this season.
The German was on the scoresheet as the Blues beat West Ham 1-0 over the weekend but he began his new goal drought with a terrible miss against Real Madrid on Tuesday night.
Both Werner and Tammy Abraham are failing to convince Tuchel that he has a striker in his ranks to lead the line in the long term with Lukaku ‘considered mentally strong enough’ to handle that job.
Meanwhile, Tuchel has told Werner to “put his chin up” and forget his recent major missed chances.
The German boss said: “He missed a big one in West Ham, now he missed another big one here. That does not help, but it also does not help to cry about it or to regret it all the time; it is like this.
“There are millions of people who have harder things to deal with than chances that you miss, so this is the good thing about sports – nobody cares tomorrow.
“We were sad, we were angry in the moment, this is normal. He was angry. He may be disappointed. Now he has a free day and the next day he has to put his chin up.
“He is a professional guy a top guy, he works hard. He is in positions and from there on we go.
“We will never stop pushing, we will never stop believing and I have the feeling that everybody accepts the situation like it is and as a striker it is easy, you score the next game and nobody speaks about it.”
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