Romelu Lukaku’s return to Inter Milan seems all but done, thus concluding arguably the worst transfer in Chelsea’s history. For a club that specialises in shooting itself in the foot, that is a bold claim, but few who watched Lukaku last season will disagree.
As former Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli once said, there are lies, damned lies and statistics. Forget the fact that Lukaku was Chelsea’s top goal scorer with 15 goals in all competitions (8 in the Premier League). The truth is that for most of the season, he stunk the place out. Whichever way you look at it, £6.5 million per goal is a poor return.
His performances since the turn of the year were, frankly, dire. He never seemed to put much effort in bar pointing to various Chelsea players; he never seemed to be in the right place at the right time to put the ball in the net, and his touch was very poor for a supposedly world-class striker. For a big man, he often got bullied off the ball and his inability to jump and contest high balls was mystifying.
