One of Chelsea’s big problems with Romelu Lukaku is getting rid of him without taking a major, embarrassing, obvious loss.
It wasn’t a deal sanctioned by the current ownership, but much as with Kepa, they don’t want to lose face regardless. Nobody wants to pay what Chelsea could possibly accept without looking foolish, so they are just loaned out year by year until their value dwindles enough that they can be sold without too much of a colossal one off loss on the books.
That’s why the idea of a Tammy Abraham swap deal, as suggested by the Corriere Dello Sport last week, is an interesting one. There would then be no price on the Lukaku deal. Chelsea could say they value Abraham at £200m if they wanted, and claim to have made a profit on the whole Lukaku affair, not that anyone would believe them.
Being serious however, it’s an angle the club will probably really consider, given the potential accounting benefits of this sort of deal to them as they try to stay under UEFA and Premier League spending caps.
