Romelu Lukaku scored 18 goals in the 3177 Premier League minutes for Everton last season.
That’s a goal every 176.5 minutes and those figures were not matched by any Chelsea player other than Alexandre Pato, who only played 131 minutes in total and was aided by a penalty against Aston Villa.
Diego Costa was not too far behind Lukaku, with his 12 league goals coming at a rate of one every 198.25 minutes.
However, Lukaku would be seen by many as a significant improvement on Costa, who is four years older than the Belgian at 27.
Blues boss Antonio Conte is reportedly a big fan of Lukaku, with The Sun claiming that the Italian is prepared to part with two players in a “mega deal” that he hopes will see the 23-year-old return to Stamford Bridge.
The Sun say that Chelsea have already had a straight £65m bid rejected by Everton, but that the London club now aim to use Bosnian goalkeeper Asmir Begovic and French striker Loic Remy (pictured above) to tempt the Toffees to part company with their star striker.
Begovic, 29, would be a good addition for Everton, who recently said goodbye to experienced American stopper Tim Howard.
Remy, also 29, would perhaps be more of a gamble. The former Newcastle United star scored just once last season, although he only got 285 Premier League minutes across 13 appearances.
According to the Daily Star, Begovic and Remy are paid £65,000 and £80,000 respectively as a weekly wage. That means they are costing Chelsea more than £7.5m a season.
The Star’s list of Chelsea FC wages claims that Eden Hazard is the club’s highest-earning player, taking home £200,000 – four times more than captain John Terry.
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