Chelsea boss slates striker for dishonesty

Having finished last season at the Premier League’s 6th highest scorer, there was plenty of surprise when Chelsea opted to loan Romelu Lukaku out again this season. Considering Chelsea’s options up front were weaker than several of their rivals, it seemed to be a perfect opportunity for Lukaku to establish himself at Stamford Bridge.

“The coach decides and, as a player, you have to respect that,” Lukaku said last month. “I chose to leave and it’s up to me to prove the coach wrong. The only thing I can do is play well and score a lot, and then I think people will say that I’m a good player. I want to score more goals than the strikers of Chelsea. We will see at the end of the season who made the best choice.”

With us yet to even reach the half-way mark of the season, Lukaku has seemingly already proven it was a mistake for Chelsea to let the striker leave. He has scored 7 goals in 8 Premier League games, whilst Fernando Torres has 1 in 8 games, Eto’o has 2 goals in 7 games, and Ba hasn’t scored in any of his 4 appearances.

Jose Mourinho obviously isn’t impressed that the striker he’s loaned out has scored more goals than all the strikers he has put together, and has launched an attack on Lukaku.

“Romelu is a young boy who likes to speak,” said Mourinho. “The only thing he didn’t say is why he went to Everton on loan. That’s the only thing he never says. My last contact with him was to tell him exactly that. Why do you never say why you are not here? It’s something he should say, the reason why he’s not with Chelsea and is in Everton. There are things in our lives that we have to keep private but one day he scored and said he hoped Jose was watching. It was like saying: “Why did he let me go?” And that’s what I’m telling him now: “Tell the country why you left.” When you enjoy to speak, speak everything. Don’t speak only half of it. Speak everything. It’s a simple question: Why did you leave Chelsea? Ask him.”

What Mourinho is apparently referring to is that Lukaku handed in a transfer request to Chelsea before being loaned out to Everton. Having learnt that Chelsea had signed Eto’o, Lukaku decided he wanted to leave the club. Chelsea refused to sell him but agreed to him spending yet another season out on loan.

What will Lukaku’s response be? Yesterday he admitted he was open to the possibility of staying at Everton. I wonder if Mourinho’s rant has swayed his opinion at all…