Manchester United transfer news: Why Romelu Lukaku finally joining Antonio Conte could be best for everyone

Conte has a defined role for Lukaku and a sale would greatly ease United’s own transfer business

On the night before Chelsea’s 3-0 defeat to Roma in October 2017, just as results were really turning wrong for Antonio Conte at Chelsea, one of the club’s staff was discussing Romelu Lukaku and explaining the role that the Italian manager had envisaged for him.

It was pointed out how, at Manchester United, Jose Mourinho generally expected the striker to take the ball down with his back to goal. Conte felt that, despite perceptions of Lukaku due to his physique, this didn’t really suit his abilities. The then-Chelsea manager instead envisaged a more mobile role for the striker, based on the potentially devastating incisiveness of his running. Conte being Conte, of course, he planned to thoroughly walk Lukaku through these runs so the player could fully understand what was wanted of him.

Two years later, the Belgian may finally make one specific move Conte has always wanted. To join him.

Manchester United are negotiating with Inter Milan on a deal. Conte feels it could be transformative for his new team. The hope is it could also prove transformative for Lukaku.

The decisions of that summer in 2017 now feel like they represent one of those football sliding doors moments for almost everyone involved in that transfer.

Had Lukaku gone to Chelsea, and Alvaro Morata gone to United, it isn’t completely outlandish to suggest things could have gone quite differently for at least some of the parties.

The fact that both strikers have struggled, and both managers have since left those clubs, is testament to that alone.

It’s similarly difficult not to link Lukaku’s departure from Mino Raiola to this.

He would have got the move he dreamed of, while Conte would have got one of the key transfers he wanted, in what was already a difficult summer between the Italian and the club. Mourinho meanwhile may have been more content with Morata, even if it’s difficult not to think there would have eventually been issues there, too. Morata quickly began to look miserable under Conte, and Chelsea just looked so toothless in that Roma game.

Either way, it was just one of those interconnected transfer sagas where everything went badly for everyone involved.

Lukaku probably fared best, given he did have a good return for United amid some good performances, but the fact he is where he is now – not with the squad for a pre-season friendly, and negotiating a transfer – illustrates the issue.

He and Conte now feel they can rectify some of that.

It is also a move that, in contrast to 2017, could yet work out for everyone.

Conte has a defined role for Lukaku and a sale would greatly ease United’s own transfer business, while possibly allowing another signing in attack. Some sources say the Old Trafford hierarchy need to sell big before they buy big, but this is disputed. The feeling remains that most of the work has been done on the Harry Maguire deal and that will happen before the season starts.

And yet it may not work out that easily. Inter currently feel United’s valuation is way too high and don’t see the rationale.

They themselves will struggle to pay any price, however, until they sell Mauro Icardi and Radja Nainggolan. There are currently no serious takers for either.

The prospect of Paulo Dybala colours much of this, too. The Argentine’s lawyers and representatives have been staging meetings in Manchester and London over the past two weeks – even wondering what city is better to live in – and Juventus have pondered the possibility of offering a swap for Lukaku.

He has had a poorer season in Turin and found his role reduced, but is still evidently the kind of top-class star that would otherwise instantly improve any team – and specifically United.

And yet it is that issue of Dybala’s reduced role at Juve, and the presence of someone as domineering as Cristiano Ronaldo, that makes it feel like the Italian champions wouldn’t actually be the right move for Lukaku if that did come to pass. Some in Italy also feel that – in rather typical Juve fashion – their interest is partially motivated by just blocking Inter and disrupting the work of their former employees in Conte and new CEO Giuseppe Marotta.

Just like in 2017, the situation is nowhere near as clear as the manager’s plans for Lukaku.