Chelsea are ready to lower their asking price in order to offload Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan on loan, according to reports. Lukaku is pushing for a return to Inter after a miserable first season at Chelsea and the club have now taken an important step towards securing a deal with the Italian side.

Chelsea forked out a record fee of £97.5million to sign their former player from Inter last summer but the move didn’t work out. Lukaku scored just eight goals in 26 Premier League appearances last season and openly clashed with Thomas Tuchel when he gave a controversial interview to Sky Italia in December in which he criticized the manager’s tactics.

The 29-year-old has made it clear he wants to cut short his stay in west London and return to Milan this summer. But Inter can’t afford to sign the Belgian, who is earning £325,000 at Chelsea, and a loan deal is also proving complicated.

Goal report that Chelsea were initially asking for a loan fee of £21m (€25m) but are so desperate to get rid of Lukaku that they have now reduced that asking price to £10m. sterling (12 million euros). Inter have so far only increased their offer to £6m (€7m) but Sky Sports claim the Italian club are ‘confident’ of securing the striker who has scored 24 goals in 36 league appearances to help them win Serie A in 2020/21 under manager Antonio Conte.

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Despite the desire to make things work, there now seems to be an understanding on both sides that it is better to cut their losses. Todd Boehly’s consortium, majority-funded by Clearlake Capital, is ready to back Tuchel in the summer transfer window after he completed a takeover from Roman Abramovich on May 30.

According to the Guardian, Lukaku could be far from Chelsea’s only summer start. Tuchel is said to be ready to listen to offers from Werner, Hakim Ziyech and Christian Pulisic in order to make room for newcomers.

Chelsea are considering offers for Manchester City pair Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus, RB Leipzig’s Christopher Nkunku and Barcelona’s Ousmane Dembele, who are expected to be available on a free transfer.