Your opening premise is wrong, and it leads the rest of the post to be as well.
He doesn't have to be sold. We don't need to financially at all, and if anything we benefit more from letting him rot in the reserves for a year than we would by caving in and selling under his value now.
The stature of the club is worth significantly more than £50m. We should stand firm and let every prospective signing know that not one player is bigger than the club, and if you come in to the squad to do a job, then you do that job and don't mouth off to the press, or this happens to you.
If I were Moshiri right now, there's absolutely no way I'd sanction the transfer for any fee below £65m, and even then not to a domestic rival. But unfortunately I have to acknowledge I'm not Moshiri and there's no way of predicting how this will go.
Don't get me wrong, I don't want Lukaku at the club, but because of the way he's handled himself and the situation we're in, overall I personally think the correct call is to play hardball with him and slap him down.
