Report: Romelu Lukaku has decided he doesn’t want to join Juventus after all

It has been a couple of weeks since we’ve really heard any quality reporting when it comes to Juventus’ potentially signing Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku as part of a swap deal with Dusan Vlahovic. That last update other than “keep an eye on something happening in the final weeks of the window” being tweeted (X’d?) out involved the fact that said swap deal has essentially been put on pause — or completely fallen apart — because of Chelsea not meeting Juve’s demands.

If you felt like that was a nail in the coffin, then we’ve definitely gotten one now on the cusp of the weekend arriving.

According to Matt Law of the Daily Telegraph in England, we have gotten another sign (or two) that Juventus won’t be signing the big Belgian before the summer transfer window comes to a close. That’s simply because Lukaku doesn’t want to join Juventus anymore despite everything that has happened already this summer. So now, after deals with first Inter and then Juve having fallen apart, Lukaku’s camp is now in talks with Roma over a potential loan move despite the fact that he is on massive wages and surely desperate for some sort of landing spot that isn’t Saudi Arabia.

This comes after The Athletic’s David Ornstein reported just an hour or so earlier that Chelsea are now open to seeing Lukaku leave on loan for the 2023-24 season.

So, within the span of the last month and a half, Lukaku has:

• Reportedly looked set to join Inter, only to suddenly go quiet and basically ghost the club he was on loan at last season right as they were set to buy him outright.
• Agree to personal terms with Juventus just a few days later and go from Inter hero to the opposite of that if he were to join the Bianconeri.
• Now, with another deal to one of Italy’s biggest clubs stalling out, has thrown his interest in joining Juventus to the side and has started talking to another Italian team about signing with them this summer.

All of this being happening in the span of, say, a couple of transfer windows is something you would call pretty damn dramatic. But for all of it to happen within the span of less than two months? I dunno about you guys, but I certainly would file this under the heading of “bullet dodged” without a doubt.

It’s almost like a guy who hasn’t stayed at a club for more than a couple of years and has had plenty of drama surrounding him wherever he goes has now taken things into overdrive this summer with Chelsea wanting absolutely nothing to do with a 30-year-old striker who was one of the highest-paid players in the world last season. (You know, before the Saudis came in and threw everything into whack more than even the Premier League has the last few years.)

So if Lukaku is really out on joining Juventus like it seems to be, then the chances of Vlahovic staying just went substantially up (even more than they have the last few weeks) and a lot of grumpiness regarding the summer mercato suddenly going up in smoke.