Romelu Lukaku has told Inter Milan he would like them to accept a suitable offer for him from Chelsea.
Chelsea remain determined to re-sign the Belgium striker despite Inter having rejected a second offer of £85m for the 28-year-old, which would have also seen left-back Marcos Alonso move to the Serie A club, according to Sky in Italy.
The reigning European champions had already seen a first offer rebuffed by Inter and it is understood neither proposal had made the Italian club change their mind about selling Lukaku.
An offer of between £94m (€110m) and £102m (€120m) could convince Inter chairman Steven Zhang to sell.
Premier League rivals Manchester City had also registered their interest in signing Lukaku earlier this year, but no offer was made as Inter showed no intention of selling at the time.
Speaking after his side’s pre-season friendly against Tottenham on Wednesday evening, Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel refused to directly address the transfer situation but described Lukaku as a “fantastic player”.
Asked about Lukaku having expressed his desire to return to Stamford Bridge, Tuchel added: “Everybody wants to come (to Chelsea) hopefully. Not everybody unfortunately, but you can imagine that a lot of players want to come and join.
“The board is not offering players. That’s not the way it works so far. We’re talking with the board about players and if our opinions and the scouts conclude, then we target players who, in all our opinion, could make our squad stronger, which is quite a challenge to find.
“We don’t only talk about talent but also attitude because we have a strong squad and there are some players of which we think they could be a good target and good add-ons and good improvement in our squad.”
Lukaku played a key role in Inter’s Serie A win last season, scoring 24 goals.
Inter need to reduce their wage bill this summer and title-winning boss Antonio Conte left the club in May amid concerns about plans to cut his budget.
Chelsea are determined to sign a world-class striker and their other main target this summer has been Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland.
“I will not talk about players who don’t play in my squad,” Tuchel said. “And Romelu Lukaku is a fantastic player but he’s a player from Inter and it’s with all the respect I will not talk about him in this situation.