Chelsea could now offer Romelu Lukaku as makeweight for ‘top class’ Newcastle-linked player

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Chelsea have now entered the race for Newcastle United-linked Nicolo Barella and could have the perfect way to sweeten the deal.

This week Newcastle were said to be preparing a £50million bid for Inter Milan midfielder Nicolo Barella sending the Toon Army into a frenzy.

It was initially thought that the deal was actually progressing and talks were underway, but that turned out not to be the case and it’s now thought that Barella has no intention of leaving Inter, and the club, while they’d prefer not to sell, would not entertain a bid below £70million.

Now Il Corriere dello Sport in Italy has claimed that Chelsea are prepared to offer Romelu Lukaku as part of a deal to bring Barella to the Premier League.

Lukaku had a great season with Inter and the Italians are keen to keep him

Lukaku spent last season on loan at Inter grabbing 14 goals and seven assists in 37 games. As much as the Italian club would love to keep him, they simply cannot afford him having hit some pretty dire financial troubles. It’s those troubles that have given Newcastle the confidence to go in for Barella with a low bid.

Inter had asked Chelsea if they could loan Lukaku again next season, but the Blues will only allow the Belgian forward to leave on a permanent deal.

Asking for Barella in return for Lukaku could suit both parties, although, given Inter’s need to pay back a £275million bank loan next year, they may still be more receptive to a cash offer.

The fact that Inter need cash could work in Newcastle’s favour here. Under any other circumstances it’s likely that the Lukaku-Barella swap deal would have been the way to go.

Sky Sports had NUFC Twitter going wild last night due to a typo

The Express reports that Newcastle are still putting together a £50million package for ‘top class‘ Barella, but if the Magpies really want him they’re going to have to move quickly and be prepared to up their offer.

Sky Sports sent Newcastle fans into a tailspin last night after a tweet went up on their SkySportsPL Twitter saying “St James’ Park next season” showing an image of Barella and James Maddison. The tweet was deleted pretty quickly, but not quick enough that Newcastle fans couldn’t grab a screenshot and speculate that big news was incoming.

It turned out that it was deleted because they’d forgotten to put the question mark at the end of the text.

Newcastle still have work to do on both deals, but even with Chelsea’s offer, we’re not out of the running for Barella.