The Belgian school Sint-Guido-Instituut had a documentary made about a group of students that included one Romelu Lukaku. The students visited Stamford Bridge in 2010, where a video was taken of a 16-year-old Lukaku looking down at the pitch from the stands.
I will never forget this video. It struck a chord deep in my heart. He said, “If one day in my life, I will cry, it will be the day I play here. I love Chelsea”.
When he was told to stop dreaming and keep up with the rest of the students he said, “This is not dreaming. I will do it. One day I will play here”. How right he was.
Unfortunately he joined at a time when Chelsea had Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres, so he did not get much of a look-in, making just 12 appearances with only one start and scoring no goals. When Chelsea won the Champions League, he refused to hold the trophy as he did not feel like a winner.
He joined West Bromwich Albion on loan in August 2012 and scored his first English Premier League goal in a 3-0 win over Liverpool. Good lad! He played 38 games and scored 17 goals that season, outscoring all his Chelsea rivals and establishing to all and sundry that he had the ability to succeed in England’s top league.
He returned to Chelsea in 2013 but Jose Mourinho was in charge and, as he usually does, he refused to give the young player a fair go. Lukaku played in only two games at the start of the season before going back on loan to Everton in the summer transfer window.
This decision shocked and saddened me, and my dislike for Mourinho started to grow roots.
During his loan at Everton he scored 16 goals in 33 games. I was confident that Mourinho, seeing his talent and ability to score, would call him back from Everton and play him next season. But no, Mourinho favoured his bigger name players that he had bought and sold Lukaku to Everton. He had too much pride to admit he made a mistake.
My dislike for Mourinho changed to hatred.
In the following three seasons for Everton he scored 20, 25 and 25 goals. In Europe he played nine games and scored eight goals. The top scorer at Chelsea in those seasons was Diego Costa, who scored 20, 12 and 17 goals. Good decision, Jose.
What could Lukaku have done playing in front of Hazard, Pedro and Willian? I hope we find out next season.
Everton manager Ronald Koeman knows Lukaku wants to come back to Chelsea, so he has recently put the price at $100 million. Chelsea manager Antonio Conte is a fan of his and he knows we have a big season coming up defending our title and competing in the Champions League as well.
There are multiple factors affecting the decision, including:
These are the many questions that need to be answered, but I am very happy that this is being talked about and I am hopeful that next season a young kid who stood looking out over Stamford Bridge will come back to the club he loves and score many goals for Chelsea.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
The real concern comes down to football's growing trend of big corporations taking up slices of the world game at the expense of smaller teams.
Kai Havertz has scored twice against his former team and Ben White also got a brace as Arsenal brushed aside a dismal Chelsea side…
Frankly, it was a bad look for Hayes. She appears like a grumpy and frustrated manager as her tenure at Chelsea is coming to an end.
Earlier in the season, Liverpool winning this fixture would be close to a foregone conclusion - but Chelsea have players who can win trophies.
Sam Kerr is reported to have agreed to a new deal to extend her medal-strewn stay at English champions Chelsea on the day her…
Nathan Ake's 88th-minute tap-in has helped Manchester City end their Tottenham Hotspur Stadium hoodoo and progress into the FA Cup fifth round after a…
