Romelu Lukaku to Chelsea: Everton striker close to completing £60m Blues return

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Simon Johnson30 July 2016

Chelsea are closing in on a deal to re-sign Romelu Lukaku and are confident they will agree a deal with Everton shortly.

Standard Sport first revealed in April that Lukaku had set his sights on a return to Stamford Bridge because he felt he had 'unfinished business there'.

Chelsea have had a £57m bid rejected by Everton, who have put a huge asking price of £75m on his head.

But the Blues feel that an offer in the region of around £60m will be enough to get their man.

It still means that Chelsea will be paying over £30m to buy back the Belgium international they sold to Everton for £28m just two years ago.

Lukaku was first signed by Chelsea for £18m from Anderlecht in 2011, but started just one League match in three years.

With first team opportunities hard to come by, he was sent away on season-long loans in 2012 and 2013, before joining Everton on a permanent basis.

The 23-year-old has flourished away from the capital, having scored 45 goals in the last two years, including a fine brace to knock Chelsea out of the FA Cup Quarter Finals in March.

Chelsea have already signed his Belgium team-mate Michy Batshuayi for £33.1m from Marseille earlier this summer.

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But the club were always looking to add another top centre forward to play up front, especially as new coach Antonio Conte wants to play a 4-2-4 formation.

The former Italy coach wants three leading strikers to choose from and had also targeted Alvaro Morata, who rejoined Real Madrid from Juventus for £23m last month.

Chelsea thought Madrid were hoping to still sell him, only for the La Liga giants to demand £67m.

Their interest in Morata, who played against them at the Michigan Stadium outside Detroit this evening, now seems over.

Lukaku's arrival will not mean the departure of Diego Costa. Significantly, Atletico Madrid, who have been pursuing him all summer, today agreed a £28m fee for Sevilla star Kevin Gameiro.

The 29-year-old was Atletico's back-up choice while they tried to convince Chelsea to sell Costa back to them.

However, with the Blues adamant that the Spain international, who they bought from Atletico for £32m in 2014, is not for sale, they completed the Gameiro switch.

Atletico do not have vast sums to spend in the transfer market and it is suspected they have now finished their spending for the close season.

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