Amonst Chelsea's entire XI of attackers is Romelu Lukaku. The club's most expensive players, the £97m man. He's the Premier League's second most expensive player of all time and has the highest cumulative transfer cost of any player in the history of the game.
His move back to Stamford Bridge really hasn't had a single upside to it and is quite possibly one of the worst value for money deals ever as well. It serves as a reminder for the new owners as to exactly what they are trying to avoid.
Failed strikers are failed strikers and they will happen, but over the course of Roman Abramovich's final 10 years they went from costing £50m (Fernando Torres) to £60m (Alvaro Morata) and ended with the near £100m spent on Lukaku. For over £200m worth of players Chelsea got just 42 league goals over six-and-a-half seasons.
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Just for context, Diego Costa alone got 52 goals across three seasons for £32m and Tammy Abraham scored 21 in his two seasons having come from the academy, recouping £40m upon his departure.
Lukaku is the worst value of them all though and Todd Boehly was lucky enough to takeover with no ties to the Belgian, effectively making it an easy exit for him to sanction as it wasn't his purchase to override.
Chelsea did have to negotiate with Inter Milan over the structure of the deal for his season-long loan though and the can was merely kicked down the road with Lukaku's initial spell ending over the summer. The understanding is that Milan will take him again next season.
That may well be complicated by the financial position Inter find themselves in though. The deal for this season was worth around £8m in loan fees but the 29-year-old has scored just two goals in the eight games he's played. Hampered by injury he looks a shadow of the 2021 title winner and even the striker Chelsea had last season.
He has four starts in all competitions and was well off the pace at the World Cup for Belgium too. Milan will be hard pushed to pay the same fee once more and it sets a challenge for Chelsea to negotiate. The Italian side are already in a financial black hole but the Blues are trying to eleviate some of their massive transfer spending whilst also complying with Financial Fair Play rules.
It is said in Italy that Milan will be looking for a discounted price. That may well test Boehly's resolve and negotiating tactics because ultimately it's very hard to see a way he remains at SW6 past the summer.
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