Romelu Lukaku's 'Chelsea exit fee set for 2024'

Despite having cost £97.5m in 2021, it appears highly likely that Lukaku will play no more than one season during his second stint at Stamford Bridge.

Although the Belgium international scored 15 goals from 44 appearances in his first campaign, he was loaned out to former club Inter Milan for a substantial loan fee ahead of 2022-23.

While the initial expectation was that the 30-year-old would spend a second year at San Siro, he eventually signed for Roma on a season-long loan deal.

As it stands, that is proving to be a success, Lukaku already contributing seven goals from his seven starts and one substitute outing in all competitions.

Lukaku has failed to score in just two of those appearances, while the well-travelled frontman has recently talked up his relationship with manager Jose Mourinho.

According to transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, Chelsea have decided that they will be prepared to sell Lukaku for £37m at the end of this season.

Co-owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital have allegedly already agreed to make the former club-record addition available for that price.

Despite Chelsea ideally wanting to recoup as much money for Lukaku as possible, they also have to ensure that they do not price themselves out of doing business.

That was partly the case in the summer, there being a strong stance over a fee until it became apparent that negotiating another significant loan fee and freeing themselves of a large chunk of Lukaku's wages would be a suitable second choice.

From Roma's perspective, everything points to them currently not having the funds to push through a deal for Lukaku unless they are able