Romelu Lukaku is on the verge of becoming a Chelsea player once again, ten years after he first joined the Blues as Thomas Tuchel's side are set to part ways with £100m to lure him away from Inter Milan and back to Stamford Bridge.
In the seven years since he departed West London on a permanent basis, Lukaku has plied his trade for a number of Chelsea's Premier League rivals, including Everton and Manchester United.
After impressing with the Toffees over the course of a three-year stay, Lukaku made the move to the red half of Manchester in a move that cost United a rumoured £75m in 2017.
Originally penning a five-year deal with the Red Devils, Lukaku's time at Old Trafford would last just two seasons, despite impressing and bagging a number of goals in a United shirt.
Originally purchased by Jose Mourinho at United, by the time he called it quits two years later Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was at the helm.
It was Solskjaer who oversaw Lukaku's departure to Inter Milan in 2019, offering up an explanation as to why he saw it as good a time as any to allow a man now valued at around £100m to leave the club.
"Of course Rom has a good record and statistically he’s one of the top number nines around when you want to play with that kind of striker, a target man,” Solskjaer said at the beginning of the 2019/20 season.
"But I’m very confident that we’ll get goals from Martial and Rashford. Dan James will create and Jesse Lingard will get more.
"It was time now for Rom to go because I think we got a good deal, he’s happy, so I think both parties ended that deal as it should be.
"Rom was injured for a while this pre-season and didn’t participate, so I just hope for him he’ll get a good start at Inter Milan."
Fast forward two years and Lukaku will return to the Premier League for a second stab at life as a Chelsea player, smashing the Blues previous transfer record of £72m in the process.
Lukaku enjoyed a stellar couple of seasons as an Inter Milan player, his goals helping to fire them to their first Serie A title in more than ten years last term.
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