Chelsea striker Lukaku in talks to join Fulham on loan

Fulham in talks to loan Lukaku from rivals Chelsea

Jul 17, 2012 7:15:00 AM

The west London neighbours are close to reaching agreement on a deal that would take the19-year-old forward across the capital for the next 12 months

EXCLUSIVE
By Wayne Veysey | Chief Correspondent

Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku is closing in on a loan move to Fulham, Goal.com can reveal.

The west London rivals are in advanced talks on a deal that would take Lukaku across the capital on a season-long loan.

Martin Jol has sanctioned a move for the Belgian teenager after Chelsea made it clear they were looking to offload, either on loan or permanent deals, some of the fringe players of their first-team squad.

Chelsea have no problem in allowing Lukaku, 19, to move to Craven Cottage as long as he is guaranteed the opportunity to play more games than he would at Stamford Bridge.

Lukaku has spoken of his frustration at the lack of first-team chances during a disappointing debut season at Chelsea following his £18 million transfer last summer from Anderlecht.

He said he was “really angry” that he started only a single Premier League match and claimed that he was treated poorly by former manager Andre Villas-Boas.

Despite the departures of Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou this summer and Nicolas Anelka in January, Lukaku remains a long way behind Fernando Torres and Daniel Sturridge in the pecking order.

Chelsea and Fulham have now agreed the basic terms of a loan deal, which would be broadly similar to Gael Kakuta’s spell at Craven Cottage in the second half of the 2010-11 season, when the young Frenchman’s wages were equally shared between the two clubs.

If the deal is completed, Lukaku will become Fulham’s third forward signing of the transfer window.

The west Londoners have already signed Mladen Petric and Hugo Rodallega on frees, from Hamburg and Wigan Athletic respectively, but allowed Andy Johnson to move to QPR on expiry of his contract and lost out to Reading in their bid to sign Russian Pavel Pogrebnyak, their loan star of last season.

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