AS Roma director Miguel Pinto discloses that Jose Mourinho was key to convincing Romelu Lukaku to join from Chelsea
AS Roma director Miguel Pinto has confirmed Jose Mourinho and the club’s owners were key to convincing Romelu Lukaku to join the club from Chelsea in the final days of the 2023 summer transfer window.
The Belgian striker has signed for the Serie A club on a season-long loan spell, with a fee of around £7 million to £8 million depending on performance. His time at Chelsea was coming to an end and the move to Italy makes sense for all parties.
Roma will also cover the 30-year-old’s entire wages after the striker agrees to reduce his salary in order to join Mourinho’s side. The former Inter Milan striker will replace Tammy Abraham who sustained a long-term injury.
Chelsea have also inserted a release clause in his contract worth £38m, which Roma could trigger if he convinces them to sign him permanently. The former Everton striker was in talks with Juventus after Inter Milan pulled out of the race to sign him, but both clubs never a serious destination for the forward.
However, persuading the striker to join Roma was a difficult task, revealed the Serie A club’s director and it took the manager and club’s owner to dive into the talks to convince Lukaku to join the club, as he said, quoted by Fabrizio Romano:
“The Lukaku deal was impossible for us in June or July. No way. Mourinho has been crucial to making it happen; it took 4-5 days to convince Lukaku—then our owners, Frienkdin, entered talks with Chelsea and literally unlocked the negotiation.”
Even though the striker will only be joining the team on loan, Mourinho has once again rescued us because at least he won’t be playing for Chelsea this year. Players who publicly declare their desire to play for another club while still being members of Chelsea are not something we want at the club. This is totally disrespectful.
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We can only hope that his performance impresses them enough to make a permanent signing for him, freeing us of him and preventing us from having to deal with his transfer issues again and again.