Romelu Lukaku has struggled to fill the void left by Olivier Giroud at Chelsea despite the £95.8m disparity between either of their summer price tags. The latter swapped the Blues for the Rossoneri a month prior to the Belgium international returning to west London, in what was portrayed as a like-for-like upgrade.
Giroud, who cost AC Milan just £1.7m, enjoyed a tremendous vein of form during the twilight stages of his Chelsea tenure. The veteran striker's prominence in the first team unearthed the Blues' hunger for a target man.
But, having already fought against the tide of Marina Granovskaia's pressing over-30s contact policy and Thomas Tuchel looking to inject his side with new blood, the curtains were drawn on the 35-year-old's tenure. Lukaku was drafted for a record-breaking £97.5m; the Belgian was — in Tuchel's mind — a spritely heir to a fading Giroud.
