Romelu Lukaku will not be fondly remembered by Chelsea fans if indeed he has played his last game as a player of Chelsea Football Club. New owner Todd Boehly decided to back head coach Thomas Tuchel and has now negotiated a move for Lukaku to move back to Inter Milan. Per Di Marzio, the loan will be for one season for a fee around €8m + add ons. One suspects that this might be the final time he plays for Chelsea, unless Thomas Tuchel is replaced as head coach, will Lukaku want to come back?
It’s understood the relationship between Tuchel and Lukaku is irreparable, Lukaku pushed for the move back to Inter Milan this summer, talking a bit about potential reasons why Marina has now left as Chelsea director, Matt Law from The Telegraph stated on The London is Blue Podcast that Marina had been given less power this summer window and it was in actual fact Tuchel who would be leading the charge. Matt further went onto state that Petr Cech and Granovskia would’ve perhaps liked to seen Lukaku stay another season but Todd consulted Tuchel and the mixture of Tuchel’s request for him to leave and Lukaku’s pushing tactics left Chelsea’s new owner with little choice. It’s a sign of huge change at Chelsea with the manager seemingly getting full power over players and contract situations. One thing is for certain, with all the backing Tuchel may get this summer, he will be expected to deliver next season now that he has a chance to chose his own targets.
For me, it felt like Lukaku’s time really ended when he did the unauthorised interview with sky Italia, he said Inter fans were the best in the world which felt like a dagger in the heart to all Chelsea fans across the globe, he reminisced about his on field relationship with Lautaro Martinez which seemed like a dig at Chelsea’s current attacking options and even questioned Tuchel’s tactics, stating Antonio Conte gave him more “Freedom” this interview resulted in a wage fine and Lukaku being dropped for Liverpool at Stamford bridge.
Tuchel was understood to be furious behind the scenes and the fans were too. Lukaku came out and apologised for his interview in a apology video published on Chelsea’s website, to this day, we don’t know whether he was forced to, or did it off his own back. I was less than impressed to see him smiling in the video, it didn’t seem genuine.
The final straw in the relationship which has been reported by various sources was said to be when Chelsea won 0-1 away at Crystal Palace, so why? What happened? Well, Romelu Lukaku managed just SEVEN touches in 90 minutes leaving boss Thomas Tuchel very frustrated and the theme of Lukaku not really putting in 100%, not pressing and not making runs was very evident over the whole season’s entirety.
It isn’t all Lukaku’s fault though, there’s a section within Chelsea’s fan base which says Tuchel should have done more or changed formation more regularly, my answer to that is, how do you expect Tuchel to change his whole philosophy to cater towards only a select few in the squad? even when we did see evidence of Chelsea playing counter attacking football against Manchester City at home, the rest of the team looked awful and Lukaku and Werner didn’t live up to expectations playing in a system which is more suited to them.
If Chelsea abandoned possession based football and switched to a more pragmatic style, we may have seen more goals from Lukaku but I believe the fans would have been disgruntled and the football would have been even more boring than it was towards end of the season. I think Chelsea’s squad suits / suited ball players, you’ve got the likes of Jorginho, Kovacic, Mount, Silva, Rudiger ( now left ) Reece James, Chilwell and others who would much rather play the type of football Tuchel currently uses at Chelsea, we just lack invention and combinations in the final third of the pitch which has to improve next season.
Whatever my opinion is, I see both sides, perhaps Tuchel should’ve catered to Lukaku, he was a £100m signing overall but just don’t forget Lukaku himself said he could pretty much do anything the manager asked him to do and in reality it was a complete lie, he struggled with everything that wasn’t running in behind on a counter attack or a shot with lots of open space. Lukaku is not the all round package that Tuchel wants upfront, and I think we all thought he was.
August 2021: “I like the system that we play and I’m very flexible. I can play as a two or by myself and I’m used to the system because it’s what we play with the Belgian national team so I don’t need much time to adapt.”
“I told him [Tuchel] that I am multi-dimensional. It is about having clarity”
All in all, Lukaku bagged 8 goals in the premier league in a total of 26 matches, it looks even worse when you take into consideration 2 of those came right at the end of the season against Wolves in a 2-2 draw at the Bridge.
What about the champions league?
Lukaku’s champions league run with Chelsea will be remembered for the sitter he missed against Real Madrid in the first leg, a free, open header to put Chelsea back into the tie, and he fluffed it. Chelsea bought him for these moments, the years of clinical finishing and ruthlessness at several clubs and it just felt like Chelsea got Manchester United Lukaku, but 2x worse.
Where do Chelsea go from here?
Reports lately have stated Tuchel is looking to build a more fluid, versatile front 3. Some names that cropped up include Raheem Sterling who I think would be a very good signing depending on his role and the formation, and Richarlison who I went to talk about now.
Richarlison in my opinion would be an average signing for Chelsea, Atleast if we paid £50m which is said to be his price. Why do I say that? I think the main attraction with Richarlison is his relentless pressing which Chelsea fans at the ground really love Timo Werner for, and his nature to get involved in trouble and be a bit of a difficult character for defenders mentally which has seen Chelsea fans bring comparisons to Diego Costa.
In this sense, he would suit Tuchel’s system better than Lukaku and the fans would probably love him, however most of Richarlison’s goals for Everton are on the counter attack, and I think with Tuchel’s heavy possession based football, Richarlison could struggle in a similar way to Lukaku. I have my concerns over if he is good enough technically also, how would he link up with Raheem Sterling if he were to join or Mason Mount for example? What happens to Havertz?
Havertz has operated on the right hand side before, but he looks more comfortable operating as the Striker or false 9, which then allows Mason Mount to start on the right. What happens if Richarlison is signed to Mount / Kai? Although versatile, I wouldn’t want Richarlison playing on the wing personally, for me, this signing doesn’t make much sense other than a depth option and even then, I’d much rather keep Armando Broja.
One of the positives about Richarlison and indeed Raheem Sterling is they are premier league proven, however can we even use that statement after a striker with over 100 premier league goals has just completely flopped?
