LUKAKU STILL HAS A POINT TO PROVE
Belgian striker returns to Chelsea as world’s most expensive player but…
AT a cumulative £291million in transfer fees, Romelu Lukaku will surpass Neymar by becoming the most expensive player ever when he completes his £98m return to Chelsea.
The Blues will have contributed £115m to that total, given it was exactly 10 years ago that they first paid Anderlecht £17m for an 18-year-old whose reputation was as big as his size 14 boots.
Yet, despite the subsequent outlay on the striker by Everton, Manchester United and Inter Milan, there remains doubt in England as to his true worth.
There were, after all, very few at Old Trafford mourning his exit for San Siro two years ago, even if his tally of 42 goals over two seasons was respectable.
But that is the memory that lingers, of a player out of favour and out of shape. Gary Neville, for one, made no secret of his contempt for the Belgian.
‘He admitted he was overweight! He is over 100kg! He is a Manchester United player!’ he tweeted at the time. ‘He will score goals and do well at Inter Milan but unprofessionalism is contagious.’
He did score goals for Inter — 64 from 95 matches — and he leaves as both a Serie A champion and the league’s player of the year. But Italy is no longer a yardstick by which to measure the world’s best — certainly not compared to the Premier League — and so there is caution as to the merit of Lukaku’s post-United revival.
Those in Milan, however, are quick to shout down the sceptics, even if they believe there is a misconception when it comes to how best to use the 6ft 3in frontman.
‘I would define him as a “fake giant”,’ says Massimo Callegari, a journalist and commentator for Sport Mediaset. ‘You see him with his great physical strength and you would think of him as a sole striker who can fight the whole defence and win.
‘But, at Inter, he showed he is not that kind of player. When alone he is not so great, not so strong. He needs to be part of a team.
‘He is very good with his feet and we have seen a big improvement in him, even in two years in Italy. Inter coach Antonio Conte has done a lot for him.
‘If Chelsea are able to support him, as Inter have done, he will do a lot better than he did at Manchester United.’
There has long been the claim that Lukaku is a flat-track bully and, at United, he scored just once against a top-six club.
Chelsea are not buying Lukaku to take care of Norwich and Watford. They believe he can make the difference in winning the title and, to do that, he needs to score against their nearest rivals.
‘We knew of this reputation and his poor record against the better teams when he arrived in Italy,’ says Callegari.
‘Here, he also struggled a little against the bigger teams in the Champions League. This is the last step for him.
‘But he is in the best shape of his football life and I believe he is ready to take that step, if Chelsea use the right players around him.’
It is interesting to note that, for the most expensive footballer in history, last season’s Serie A victory was Lukaku’s first silverware since leaving Anderlecht for Chelsea in 2011.
At 28, maybe it is that Lukaku, as Callegari suggests, is returning to Stamford Bridge at the peak of his powers. For those who knew him first time around are surprised and impressed by the career he has gone on to have.
One regular at Chelsea’s Under 23 matches speaks of a youngster who struggled to justify his price tag — only Wayne Rooney had cost more as a teenager.
‘Romelu was powerful and the first-team defenders would come in from training with their feet in bits from marking him,’ says the source. ‘But he didn’t look good enough for Chelsea. Technically, he was miles off. His finishing in training was wild and all about power, he clearly needed a lot of work.’ But work he did and, while he never scored for the Blues in 15 outings, his 251 from 508 club appearances tells of a forward who has learnt to apply delicacy to that early force. There are also 64 goals for Belgium, including four at Euro 2020. Given Chelsea’s top marksman last season was Jorginho, with seven penalties, then the purchase of a player who as good as guarantees a one-in-two scoring ratio is sure to narrow a 19-point gap to champions Manchester City. It is perhaps an easy conclusion to draw, but Lukaku left west London a boy and returns a man. For when he first arrived in London on the Eurostar a decade ago, he remarked that he wished he had worn a hooded top to avoid being recognised. This time, Lukaku is the Euros star who wants to show English doubters just how good he really is.