Stamford Bridge side ready to use one Belgian to help land another.
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Chelsea could be willing to allow Romelu Lukaku to join Aston Villa as part of a ‘shock move’ to sign want-away Belgian Christian Benteke according to the Daily Mail.
Blues boss Jose Mourinho is thought to be keen on the 22 year old Villa Park forward and is ready to meet the Midlands club’s £25m valuation but this source suggests that teenager Lukaku would be an ‘obvious’ makeweight in any deal to sign Benteke but one would wonder why the Stamford Bridge side would be willing to offer a player with such potential.
One would have assumed that Mourinho’s interest in Benteke would have possibly involved the national team compatriots playing alongside each other and it may well prove that Aston Villa would rather a straight cash offer for their most effective attacking option.
Benteke joined Aston Villa last summer in a deal said to be worth in the region of £8m and with the former Racing Genk man having now handed in an official transfer request the club’s American owner Randy Lerner is said to want upwards of £25m for a player who notched up a very impressive 23 goals in all competitions last term.
Lukaku had a similarly successful spell on loan at West Brom and will apparently be part of Mourinho’s first team set-up, at least that was the general consensus among ‘those in the know’ prior to his report that suggests he could be offloaded to help land Benteke.
Mourinho certainly looks keen to strengthen his attack and having already brought in Andre Schurrle may well be considering what part Fernando Torres and Demba Ba will play in his first team plans next term.