Lukaku transfer to Inter Milan under threat from £40m FFP crisis as Conte wants Man Utd striker to lead attack

ROMELU LUKAKU’S move to Inter Milan is under threat – because the club are in a desperate race to raise £40million to meet financial fair play rules.

New Inter boss Antonio Conte has targeted Manchester United star Lukaku to lead his side’s attack next season.

But the Italian giants are will be unable to put together a package to take the Belgian ace to the San Siro if they don’t come up with a huge chunk of money by June 30.

That is the date Inter have to file their accounts to comply with FFP, and they are currently short of doing that to the tune of £40m.

They are trying to flog a player or two from their existing squad before then to ease their financial commitments – and until they do they are unable to add Lukaku’s transfer fee and £130,000-a-week wages to their balance sheets.

Inter had hoped they could piece together a swap deal with Juventus which would see striker Mauro Icardi move to Turin with Paulo Dybala moving in the opposite direction.

Such a move would remove Icardi’s huge wages from their books and comply with FFP in one stroke – but Dybala has refused to be involved in any deal.

ICARDI CRISIS

Conte is desperately trying to move Icardi on, believing his antics and trouble-making off the pitch are not worth putting up with just for his goalscoring talents.

SunSport understands there had been a thought to offer the Argentine to United as part-exchange for Lukaku – who the Premier League club have told Inter will cost around £75m.

But Icardi’s track record of causing problems behind the scenes has seen Inter get the impression United will have no interest in such a deal.

So United are now playing a waiting game to see if Conte can actually come up with the funds to follow through on his interest with a bid.

Inter are not keen to pay much more than £60m for 26-year-old Lukaku, who is now left sweating on whether United will insist on such a high fee which could potentially price him out of a move away from Old Trafford.

The striker still has three years left on his current deal, but United have made it clear to him he can leave if the right offer comes in.