It’s going to be a busy few weeks at Chelsea, and as always Fabrizio Romano is all over it.
The insider has just posted a Tweet with an update on 4 of Chelsea’s ongoing outgoing transfer situations.
First up is the big fish and the big goal of this summer – getting rid of Romelu Lukaku. Romano remains hopeful here, saying that he is “expected” to join Napoli. It seems his personal terms are agreed, and it’s just a question of hammering out a fee with the Italian side. That’s not proving easy.
Then there’s Raheem Sterling, who Romano says “can leave if Joao Felix returns.” That deal is suddenly back on the cards as we look to find a way to give Atletico Madrid the money so they can pay us for Conor Gallagher.
Perhaps most intriguingly is the idea that Noni Madueke could be available, just 18 months after signing. Romano claims he is “one to watch” with Newcastle interested in signing him. The arrival of Pedro Neto has certainly made us question his long term future, but given we paid €33m for Madueke in January 2023, it’s hard to see us making a significant profit on him after some pretty underwhelming showings since then.
https://twitter.com/fabrizioromano/status/1822968694143631392?s=46&t=mhk-gOnLCVdOd-R-4zjIzQ
A Moreira mystery
Romano also uses this Tweet to jump on the Diego Moreira story which broke an hour or so ago in L’Equipe. The French paper had implied that the winger was going to make a permanent move to Chelsea’s sister club Strasbourg, having spent last season struggling to get any senior minutes at all.
Romano’s update, however, claims it could be a loan move. That seems very unlikely to us, given we’re down to just a couple of foreign loan slots left and have much more valuable assets than Moreira to worry about taking them.
Can’t send him to Strasbourg Santos and the Yank has gone there.