Manchester United have reportedly told Inter Milan they will have to pay well over £79million to land Romelu Lukaku this summer.
Inter sporting director Piero Ausilio seemingly confirmed the Serie A club have made an official approach for Lukaku on Friday as they look to replace Mauro Icardi.
Lukaku, who still has three years left on his contract, missed the club’s open training session in Australia yesterday which fuelled talk of an exit.
However, Sky Sports News states that United ‘are yet to receive a formal offer for Lukaku and haven’t named their price to any club’.
The Belgian returned to training with his team-mates in Perth on Friday morning after a rehab session rehab on a knock picked up earlier in the week.
United bought Lukaku from Everton for a whopping £79m two years ago and Sky claim they’d ‘be looking for an increase on that figure if they were to be tempted to sell him’.
Sources have apparently told them that the club believed ‘a figure of £79m is not an accurate valuation on the player in the current market’.
Anything around that amount would smash Inter’s record transfer, which currently stands as the £42m they paid Lazio for Christian Vieri back in 1999.
Meanwhile, their reporter Kaveh Solhekol believes there is still bad blood between United and Inter Milan from negotiations involving Ivan Perisic.
The Red Devils made an offer last summer to bring the Croatian to Old Trafford but the Serie A side refused to sell him at the time.
And now Solhekol thinks the current negotiations over a potential deal for Lukaku might be affected by “bad blood” that still exists between the two clubs.
“There is some sort of bad blood between the two clubs,” Solhekol told Sky Sports.
“If you remember two years ago, Manchester United were desperate to sign Ivan Perisic from Inter Milan.
“They offered €45million, Inter Milan said ‘we will not let him go unless we get €50m’ and they refused to sell him over just €5m.
“And I think people at Manchester United remember how Inter Milan behaved two years ago.”
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