Romelu Lukaku staying at Chelsea relies on the future of Marina Granovskaia, according to noted Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio.
The Belgian forward has endured a nightmare season at Stamford Bridge following a £97.5million move from Inter Milan last summer and has publicly spoken of his desire to return to the San Siro one day.
While only Mason Mount scored more Premier League goals for Chelsea than the 28-year-old this term, few would argue over his struggles in adapting to Thomas Tuchel’s system and there are doubts the German will ever be able to build his attack around Lukaku.
Christopher Nkunku and Robert Lewandowski are both targets for Chelsea this summer, one that is expected to be a busy one for the club in the first window of the Todd Boehly era.
Still, Di Marzio suggests that Granovskaia’s role in bringing Lukaku back to west London could see him continue into next season, as long as she remains at the club herself.
"It depends now on who will decide for the future of Chelsea,” he told wettfreunde. “If Marina Granovskaia will stay or not. If she will stay, I don’t think, knowing how she fought to have Lukaku, with Inter, last summer, and say ‘you can go to Inter on loan without option to buy.
"I think it’s really, really difficult but in football transfers you can never say impossible. If Lukaku will say ‘oh, I will go only to Inter otherwise I’ll not come back’ then it depends on the position of the club in Lukaku’s situation.
"Obviously Inter is waiting. If they will see some little possibility of having Lukaku they will try to get him."
