Chelsea star, Romelu Lukaku, has really made his bed in terms of his transfer options away from the Blues this summer, and with Inter Milan now apparently no longer interested in his services, the Italians have turned their attentions to an emerging Arsenal star.
The Belgian’s desire to enter into negotiations with Juventus behind Inter’s backs has ensured that the nerazzurri turned their backs on him, and a move to the bianconeri is almost certainly dependent on them selling Dusan Vlahovic.
It’s left Lukaku with an option of potentially having to move to the Saudi Pro League even though it would appear to be his least favoured option.
In any event Inter appear to have already moved on to other targets, and according to The Athletic (subscription required), Arsenal’s 22-year-old Folarin Balogun is of interest to them.
Though he hasn’t made the breakthrough at the Gunners, the fact that they are hoping to sell him for a fee in the region of £50m suggests that they believe he can make it at the top level – just not with them.
The Athletic note that Inter will test the waters with a £34.3m bid, but it’s hard to see Arsenal accepting such a low figure at this stage, and without any negotiation.
As can be seen by the graph above, courtesy of DataMB, Balogun is second best to Lukaku in virtually all aspects, however, at eight years younger than the Belgian he certainly has time to get to the same level.
It’s in Arsenal’s interest to sell their young star if they’re not going to play him, and perhaps a fee somewhere between Inter’s expected opening offer and the north Londoners’ ideal sale price will be enough to get the deal over the line.