Reports: Juventus have made a bid for Romelu Lukaku ... with a very obvious catch

When the first Romelu Lukaku to Juventus rumors popped up last week, there was a line of thinking that once the weekend was over, those rumblings would basically go away.

Now as we’re set for a new weekend to begin, there’s even more signs that Juve is serious about trying to bring in Lukaku this summer ... with one very big and obvious catch to the whole deal.

According to both Fabrizio Romano and Sky Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio, Juventus have sent in a bid to Chelsea in an attempt to sign the want-away Lukaku. However, as Inter tries to bring him back to San Siro on a permanent basis, there is something that is currently holding things up from Juve’s end. That would be, as you can probably figure out, the sale of Dusan Vlahovic, which hasn’t happened yet and would be the only reason as to why Juve would bring in Lukaku this summer.

Juve’s bid for Lukaku, you may be wondering? A €37.5 million fee with another €2.5 million in potential add-ons for the 30-year-old Belgian. Based on what Romano says Inter’s latest — and potentially final? — bid is, it’s for the same total amount of money but Juve’s offer has more money up front.

Romano continues to report that Paris Saint-Germain are the only ones actively working to potentially sign Vlahovic, but no bid has been sent to Juventus as of Friday night.

Lukaku, who spent last season on loan at Inter after his big-money move back to the Premier League two summers ago, and his agent have reportedly gotten the cold shoulder from Inter recently despite the fact that the Nerazzurri have submitted a new — and potentially final? — bid to buy him outright. The fact that Juventus have jumped into the fray despite the fact that they haven’t sold Vlahovic yet is something that, as you might guess, has made the Inter front office a little ... grumpy.

But you can see what Juve is doing here as they await the market for Vlahovic to develop and Paris Saint-Germain to send in their first bid. This is preparing for life after Vlahovic, who is being viewed as one of the more likely big-name players to be solid this summer as Juve look to generate some money knowing that there will be no Champions League football next season.

That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a way to go that would create a bunch of optimism — especially when you’re replacing a 23-year-old with a load of talent with a guy in his 30s who could very well be on the wrong side of his career at this point.