"We do everything to help him. This is absolutely the wrong question. It is not about one player. It is a team sport. It is not about ten players serving one player. This is not Chelsea. This is not football".
Thomas Tuchel's statement in January following Romelu Lukaku's now defining interview was, in reflection, the beginning of the end of the Belgian's time at Stamford Bridge. Whilst we await the striker's next chat with Italian media on his return to the San Siro, Tuchel's words reflected a view that supporters rallied behind.
It was about a collective over the individual and the theory that the underperforming Lukaku needed to adapt to Tuchel's Chelsea rather than the other way around.
