Cast your minds back to August, when the gleaming London light shone down on Stamford Bridge for an open training session. Romelu Lukaku was pictured holding his new Chelsea shirt with the backdrop of the West Stand behind him. The Belgian had a wide smile, and there was equal excitement over his signing and the heights his goalscoring influence could bring to Thomas Tuchel's previously profligate attack.
"I just feel more complete." Lukaku proclaimed in his first interview with Chelsea TV. "I've tried to master all the facets that a striker needs, and I just want to keep improving on the small details all the time and keep improving on my strengths as well.
"I just want to try to help the team win and be available for the manager as well as for my teammates. I want to make sure that they feel comfortable and they can lean on me in whatever situation we're in."
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The overarching narrative felt too neat. Lukaku had been signed by Chelsea in 2011 from Anderlecht but struggled to ever make his mark at the club he grew up loving. A cruel setback in missing the deciding spot-kick against Bayern Munich in the 2013 Super Cup proved to be his final action for the club, being sold to Everton a year later after a successful loan.
Then to Manchester and Milan, where he developed and grew, gaining further admiration and respect. The third act of his career in west London to claim the spot he'd always craved was poetic. How could this go wrong?
Although Chelsea was reigning European Champions before the club broke their transfer record to re-sign the Belgian, the fact Jorginho had been the top league scorer (all from penalties) with seven the previous season signalled the need for improvement.
A goal 15 minutes into his debut against Arsenal felt emphatic and an early sign that Lukaku's new role in Tuchel's growing attack would be transformative. Seven months and a Sky Italia interview later, the mood is completely different.
Although Lukaku netted his 12th goal of the season at The Riverside last weekend as Chelsea progressed to the FA Cup Semi-Final, his involvement in that game actually did more to signal where the £97m forward now finds himself in the pecking order.
Lukaku, framed as the goalscoring saviour to Chelsea's attacking problems post-Diego Costa, now finds himself firmly behind the in-form Kai Havertz. Thomas Tuchel has reverted to the personnel that won him the Champions League last spring, replacing an awkward-looking attack with Lukaku placed in the centre with Havertz's more suitable fluidity.
The positive effects have been undeniable. Chelsea have won their last six games, Havertz starting four of the six, the two Lukaku starting being in the FA Cup against Championship opposition. The German has four league goals in his last three appearances, already bettering his entire total of last term.
When Chelsea return to action against Brentford after this international break, it is hard to see Lukaku returning to Tuchel's favoured lineup. This sentence would have seemed unfathomable after that dominant display at The Emirates in August.
As Chelsea fans await to discover who their next owner will be, this summer's transfer window clearly poses a serious question over the future of Lukaku. He was not meant to be a merely rotational figure, an understudy to the main event. His struggles to adapt to Tuchel's system places the club in an awkward place.
It is hard to see a scenario where anyone across Europe would be willing to cough up anything close to the £97m fee Chelsea paid. That's in addition to all the uncertainty over how Chelsea will now approach transfers post, Roman Abramovich.
But in persisting with Lukaku, the issue remains that his profile which thrived in counter-attacking scenarios not being tailored to the more controlled possession of Tuchel. Also compensating for his lack of pressing, something Tuchel insists from his attacking players.
Would Tuchel revolutionise his whole system to suit one player? Emphatically the answer is no, in his own words and recent actions to play Havertz. "This is a team sport, so it's not about ten players serving one player," Tuchel said when referring to Lukaku's issues back in January.
"This is not Chelsea, and this is not football. Every player serving the team is the highest principle, and this will never change."
How the new ownership approach this delicate situation could be definitive. If we are going off the assumption players of Lukaku's profile and the price tag will not be prioritised whilst Tuchel is in the dugout, then Lukaku's exit might be the only option.
