Chelsea are reported to have made a significant breakthrough in their attempts to bring back Romelu Lukaku after Everton accepted that the Belgian powerhouse wants to leave Goodison Park and rejoin his former club. They will, however, still demand an enormous fee.
According to the Daily Mirror, Chelsea have already seen one offer of £57m turned down by the Toffees. That's slightly more than twice the fee Everton bought the player for in 2014, but the clubwill only sell for a figure that will make him the fourth most expensive player ever.
Everton have decent transfer kitty already but with the £100m+ they could make from Stones/Lukaku sale, they'll have serious money to spend!
It is said that Everton are looking for £75m for the 23-year-old front-man, a figure to nearly match the price Juventus recentlypaid for Gonzalo Higuain, and eclipsed only by Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo when they joined Real Madrid in 2013 and 2009 respectively.
Lukaku has been itching for a move away from Goodison Park for several months. He was clearly frustrated by Everton's poor campaign in 2015/16 and is known to want to play Champions League.
He won't immediately get that at Chelsea because of the club's 10th place finish last season, but is rumoured to feel he has 'unfinished business' at Stamford Bridge after the way his first spell was brought to a premature end.
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Chelsea have already landed Lukaku's international team-mate Michy Batshuayi for a fee in excess of £33m this summer and have continued to pursue another new striker as manager Antonio Conte looks to put his stamp firmly on the squad.
The Italian has previously insisted that he wants to keep Diego Costa as well, although speculation in the last week has been rife that the controversial figure still desperately wants to go back to Atletico Madrid, to the point of personally asking coach Diego Simeone to wait for him.
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