CHELSEA have had an £86million bid for Romelu Lukaku involving Marcos Alonso rejected.
The European champions have identified the 28-year-old Belgian as their number one striker target – but have been told by Inter Milan to stump up £100m.
It comes is after the Blues were met with a brick wall in their attempts to try to persuade Borussia Dortmund to do a deal for Erling Haaland.
But with Inter having no intention of being bullied into selling their main man, Roman Abramovich will have to come up with an even bigger offer.
Chelsea made their initial offer of £86m for the player they sold to Everton for £28m seven years ago.
But Inter rate Lukaku as one of the top strikers in world football so are asking for a nine-figure sum.
Now Abramovich and director Marina Granovskaia face having to pay way more than they planned if they want to land the forward and not leave the squad short for the coming season.
Boss Thomas Tuchel has made it clear to them he needs a top-class striker to help bridge the gap between themselves and champions Manchester City this season.
Tammy Abraham has been told he can leave after failing to convince Tuchel he is up to the task, and Olivier Giroud has already quit Stamford Bridge for AC Milan.
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The Blues originally prioritised a move for Norweigan Haaland but despite applying pressure have found Dortmund unwilling to drop their £170m asking price.
And they have found Bayern Munich just as tough to crack after enquiring about the availability of Robert Lewandowski.
With Harry Kane intent on moving to Manchester City it leaves Lukaku as the most viable of the best strikers in the world to get a deal done for, but it will come at a cost.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
