Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has responded to claims that his side is on the verge of signing Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku. The Blues played out a 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur in a pre-season friendly on Wednesday and following the conclusion of the encounter, the manager of the club was adamant to give anything away with rumors suggesting that the Belgian striker is close to moving to Stamford Bridge.
Lukaku has been tipped for a return to the London club after exceling for Inter Milan since joining in 2019. In 94 appearances across all competitions, the 28-year-old striker has scored 65 goals, catching the eyes of his boyhood club who have struggled for goals as a result of not having enough quality strikers. Recent reports from the UK and Italy have indicated that Chelsea have had two bids rejected by the player's club with a third set to be accepted.
The move to Stamford Bridge is one that the player is also said to be keen on and agreeing personal terms is not expected to be a problem for either parties. Following the conclusion of Chelsea's clash with Spurs on Wednesday, Thomas Tuchel was quizzed on the prospect of Lukaku arriving at Stamford Bridge following the departure of Olivier Giroud to AC Milan. He said: "I will not talk about players who don't play in my squad. He's a fantastic player but he's an Inter player and I will not talk about him in this situation.
"Not everybody but I can imagine a lot of players want to come and join [Chelsea] but we don't comment on that! I think with the exit of Olivier Giroud, we could use a player used to play with their back to goal, whose strength is to keep possession from long balls so we can add this direct style of play to our portfolio.
"This is the characteristic of player that is not Tammy [Abraham], Timo [Werner] or Kai [Havertz] so this is a profile we don't have in the squad and could be useful," he added.
"But not for any cost and not hectic or in panic as no matter what happens, we will be competitive and have trust in our guys that we can still develop and that we have young players in the offensive part of the game who we demand that they need to improve.
"We are relaxed and very well aware of our situation at the same time."
Romelu Lukaku is expected to cost Chelsea more than $150M and will reportedly pen a five-year contract.
