Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku admits he was very close to re-signing with Chelsea in 2017.

Lukaku was a Chelsea player before he went to Everton in 2014 and fulfilled his potential as a top Premier League striker.

He was on the verge of a move to Chelsea in the summer of 2017, but ended up signing for Manchester United in the same transfer window.

"For months I was negotiating with Chelsea, years - two years straight," Lukaku told threesixtytv in 2019, via the Daily Star.

"I was at Everton and we beat them in the quarter-finals. We won 2-0 and I scored two goals.

"Two weeks before that Chelsea called me, and said 'You know, the coach that we're going to get next year, he wants you next season.

"We're not going to tell you who it is, but we're going to tell you when it happens.

"So we played the game, we win 2-0, then they tell me who's the coach.

"For two years I talked with Chelsea. One time it didn't happen, because I didn't want to put up a fight with Everton, so I stayed.

"Then the second year, I was like, I was going to Chelsea, I'm not going to lie. I was looking for an apartment, a house - an apartment for my Mum to stay in when she came, a house close to the practice facility so I don't have to drive too far."

He added: "And then Man U came.

"At Man U I felt the trust a bit more where everybody wanted me to be there.

"My agent got me the best opportunity for me, with the people who wanted me the most, and that was Man U, because everybody [at the club] wanted me."