Conte had formed the impression that Lukaku had his heart set on returning to Stamford Bridge

Antonio Conte has made his peace with Chelsea after their failure to sign Romelu Lukaku, with the head coach blaming the player and his agent, Mino Raiola, for the Everton striker’s impending transfer to Manchester United, which could be announced as early as today.

It is understood that Chelsea matched United’s initial £75million up-front offer for Lukaku, but were unwilling to meet the agent fee being demanded by Raiola, which they believe has been pivotal in the Belgium striker’s apparent desire to move to Old Trafford.

Chelsea fear that Lukaku is being guided towards United by Raiola — who took Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan to the club 12 months ago — because of the agent’s financial interests rather than the player’s sporting