Having rejoined Chelsea for a whopping £97.5 million from Inter Milan in August of 2021, 31 year old Romelu Lukaku’s spell back at Stamford Bridge can be best described as a disaster.
His performances were considered woeful and he basically fell out of favour before he was fully unpacked – that is despite scoring 15 times in 29 starting appearances and 15 substitute showings. The following season he spent the year back out at the San Siro, and in the 2023/24 campaign he spent the year away again but this time with AS Roma.
There is obviously a little more to it than that, Chelsea’s signing statement read ‘Lukaku has returned to the club he supported as a young boy and where he has unfinished business’ but having sustained an ankle injury, he became frustrated with his game time upon his recovery. This led to an unsanctioned interview with Sky Italia where he let those frustrations boil over, naming Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich as the top three teams in the world, said it was ‘tough to accept’ his departure from Inter (which many took as meaning he did not want to return) and he then questioned Thomas Tuchel’s system and talked about his current levels of unhappiness.
There was an apology but the damage within the club was done, and having lost the backing of the fans, his form spiralled even though his numbers on face value look decent.
With Chelsea seemingly desperate for sales after their ‘without a plan’ spending, Napoli have now struck a deal for the 119 capped Belgian international that sees the London club make a massive loss, as he is only moving for a claimed £30 million.
The signing makes perfect sense for the Italian Serie A side, it is fully expected that star striker Victor Osimhen will be moving on before the close of this transfer window as he has a number of suitors around Europe’s major leagues , and manager Antonio Conte has engineered the move having worked with Lukaku previously whilst at Inter Milan.
Those two seasons were very fruitful for the player when it came to his goalscoring form and he scored 24 times as Conte led them to the Serie A title back in 2021 – it was that form that convinced Chelsea to re-sign the player in the first place.
Napoli will certainly feel that they have got the better end of the deal here, but from Chelsea’s perspective for a player that has not featured for them since 2022, whilst the fee might be a massive loss, making a saving on his reported £325,000 a week wages will undoubtedly help them balance their own books.
With his capture announced, 55 year old Conte revealed that he could now be inline to make his debut for the club when they face Parma this Saturday evening.