Agent of Chelsea’s £97m player comments on Saudi Arabia link

Chelsea striker, Romelu Lukaku has signed a season-long loan deal with Italian side, As Roma.

The Belgium international was heavily linked with Juventus who reportedly offered a swap deal for the striker, but it didn’t come to reality, which resulted in the player securing a loan deal with As Roma instead.

However, Lukaku’s agent has said that Saudi Arabian clubs have unbalanced the market landscape with Lucrative deals thereby resulting in European clubs struggling to make deals with players.

In a statement with RTL, the agent said: “It was very difficult, even impossible at the start of the transfer window, to talk about a loan solution.

“And what the owners of Chelsea were looking for was above all to find a definitive solution, a transaction, a permanent transfer. And the real change that happened this summer was the arrival of Saudi clubs on the international transfer market.

“They have set the bar so high in terms of the transfer compensation offered to European clubs and in this case to Chelsea, that it has become very difficult for European clubs to line up and therefore on the one hand, you have a club that is not opposed to a transfer.

“On the other hand, they are going to seek the maximum transfer fee which obviously, in this case, it was only the Saudi clubs that could achieve such large amounts.”

It would be interesting to see the 30-year-old put up a good performance at Roma and help claim the Italian league with Jose Mourinho as the Belgian seem not to have a future at the Stamford Bridge,  and would hope to make a permanent exit from the club soon.

According to report, Saudi Arabia showed interest in the player, but the Belgium international did not consent to the move as he wants to continue playing in Europe.