You can now rule out one destination in Italy as a potential landing place for Romelu Lukaku; maybe. At the very least, the hypothetical Lukaku for Paulo Dybala swap, one that’s been covered extensively in transfer gossip, is a non-starter.
The Juventus forward wants to stay put, has high salary demands, and an agent that commands very inflated transaction fees. And with that, Old Trafford decided that the juice wasn’t actually worth the squeeze.
According to The Telegraph, “United have decided to pull the plug on that potential swap deal due to Dybala’s reluctance to leave Juventus, the Argentine’s huge wage demands and exorbitant agents’ fees.”
It’s too bad, because a Dybala-Lukaku swap would have actually made a lot of sense for both clubs involved, and would have provided a fair amount of entertainment for the football fan. It would have been very interesting to see how new manager Maurizio Sarri would have utilized the big Belgian.
Likewise with United and Dybala- it would have been fascinating to see what kind of upgrade he would have provided to the Red Devils’ final third.
Anyway, I guess it’s Inter Milan or bust now for Lukaku, who clearly wants away from the northwest England giant club, but unfortunately for him, the two sides remain very far apart on valuation.
Of course, the transfer window remains open until August 23rd in Italy, so the two clubs still have a fair amount of time to get it all figured out.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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