Romelu Lukaku is set to return to Chelsea in the summer after two consecutive loans spells at West Brom and Everton. He has certainly proved his quality with 32 league goals during this period. This is certainly much better than the likes of Fernando Torres, Demba Ba, and Samuel Eto’o can boast. Despite this, there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding his future.
Even his agent, Christophe Henrotay, has said that he does not know whether Lukaku will remain a Chelsea player after the summer transfer window. He said:
“For the moment, Romelu belongs to Chelsea. He has two years left on his contract. It’s going to depend on Chelsea. After that, we’ll see together what the best options are if Chelsea decide to let him go.”
Lukaku has already been linked with the likes of Tottenham, while Everton have been looking to get him on a permanent basis since the start of the season. A good league campaign has pushed his transfer fee to around the £25 million region. A good World Cup 2014, though, will certainly make him a £30 million player.
Yet, Jose Mourinho does not seem to fancy him, as Chelsea are believed to be on the verge of signing Diego Costa from Atletico Madrid for £40 million.
It is highly unlikely that Lukaku will settle for a place on the bench since Costa will command a starting place from the word go.
Lukaku said at the time of being loaned out to Everton that his main task was to score more league goals than all of the Chelsea strikers put together this season. The astonishing fact is that he has come close to achieving this, as Chelsea’s frontman have scored 18 league goals between them.
Only Mourinho will know why he does not fancy Lukaku.