Romelu Lukaku joined AS Roma on a season-long loan.
The Belgian forward spent the last season on loan at Inter Milan but the club decided to opt-out of a permanent deal this summer.
Chelsea were hoping to offload the 30-year-old off the books permanently but failed to secure a permanent departure.
There were interest from Saudi Arabia but Lukaku wanted to remain at Europe and eventually ended up reuniting with former boss Jose Mourinho at Roma.
Lukaku’s agent Sebastien Ledure claims Saudi Arabia’s extravagant spending priced his client out of a move this summer.
He told RTL: “It was very difficult [for European clubs to buy Lukaku]. [It was] even impossible at the start of the transfer window to talk about a loan solution.
“The owners of Chelsea were looking for a definitive solution, a transaction, a permanent transfer. And the real change that happened this summer was the arrival of Saudi clubs on the international transfer market.
“They have set the bar so high in terms of the transfer compensation offered to European clubs, and in this case to Chelsea, that it has become very difficult for European clubs to line up and therefore, on the one hand, you have a club that is not opposed to a transfer.”
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