Anfield side ready move for Stamford Bridge youngster.
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers is ready to table a big money offer for Chelsea forward Romelu Lukaku if he fails to retain the services of top-scorer Luis Suarez.
CaughtOffside understands that the Anfield boss is planning ahead should the Uruguayan leave Liverpool this summer, with both Barcelona and Real Madrid seemingly ready to register big money offers for the 27 year old.
Suarez is said to have a release clause written into his Liverpool contract which could take the matter of his sale out of the Merseyside club’s hands and Rodgers is ready to use his connections to the Stamford Bridge side as he sees Chelsea youngster Lukaku as the ideal long term replacement for the former Ajax man.
Rodgers spent four years at Chelsea, serving as reserve team and youth team coach in that period, and retains a good relationship with Jose Mourinho and could use this to his advantage as he mounts a bid for Lukaku.
Should Suarez leave Liverpool then Rodgers can expect a hefty sum being made available in order to replace the last season’s leading Premier League goal-scorer and the Northern Irishman will look to chief executive Ian Ayre to make a significant bid for 21 year old Belgian Lukaku.
Liverpool are ready to offer as much as £35m for the forward with the club’s American owners more than happy to fund a move as they look to continue their youthful transfer policy.
Lukaku has impressed over the course of two loan seasons, first bagging 17 goals at West Brom (despite starting just 20 Premier League fixtures), before scoring 15 in 29 top tier starts for Everton.
Jose Mourinho has had no qualms about selling players he doesn’t feel are part of his first team plans, preferring to cash-in on the likes of David Luiz, Juan Mata and Kevin de Bruyne to help fund moves to bring in new talents as the returning Chelsea boss looks to put his stamp on the Blues squad he inherited a year ago from interim manager Rafa Benitez.
A number of sides are sure to make their interest in Lukaku known after he signaled his intent to seek first team football elsewhere, his imminent Chelsea exit seemingly likely after the former Anderlecht man was quoted as stating;
“You know Chelsea: every year they buy a new top striker. I remember me coming into the dressing room last year and seeing Samuel Eto’o and Demba Ba and going: ‘Whoah! What’s happening here?’ But no problem. Many clubs are interested in me.”
“At this stage I have to look to myself. I have to play a good World Cup. That’s very interesting for all the players looking for a transfer, and I must be one of them. Chelsea know my point of view.”
Given Chelsea’s misfiring attack last term, with Samuel Eto’o, Demba Ba and Fernando Torres all failing to get into double figures in terms of a Premier League goals tally, one would have thought that Mourinho could give Lukaku a chance to impress but his ongoing pursuit of Atletico Madrid’s Diego Costa may suggest otherwise.
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