Striker-less Chelsea grapple with Lukaku conundrum

Belgian star's form on loan at Inter will be difficult to ignore for new manager

Inter Milan's Romelu Lukaku (90) gestures after scoring a goal in a Italian cup semi final first leg soccer match between Juventus and Inter Milan, at the Allianz Stadium, in Turin, Italy, Tuesday, April 4, 2023. (Fabio Ferrari / LaPresse via AP)Show less

Twenty-one minutes from the end of the first leg of their Coppa Italia semi-final at Juventus, Inter summoned their star forward.

Romelu Lukaku had started on the bench to keep him fresh for weighty assignments ahead, like next week's European Cup quarter-final and the taut joust to stay in Serie A’s top four, which Inter need to guarantee Champions League football next season.

But on Tuesday they urgently required someone to unlock the door. Juve-Inter stood at 0-0. The arrival of Lukaku lit a fuse. He was booked within 11 minutes for a robust challenge.

Juventus took the lead through Juan Cuadrado’s angled strike. Inter won a penalty in stoppage time. Lukaku converted it, and, having heard audible racist abuse during his time on the pitch, gestured with a defiant salute to spectators behind the goal.

He received a second caution, one of three red cards shown – Cuadrado and Inter captain Samir Handanovic were the others – in a tempestuous close to the 1-1 draw.

Over in London, Lukaku’s parent club Chelsea were drawing their own heavyweight fixture, 0-0 at home to Liverpool in the Premier League.

It was two evenings after Chelsea had announced the sacking of a second manager, Graham Potter, this season. His caretaker replacement, Bruno Saltor, can hardly be expected to instantly correct Chelsea’s shortcomings.

But if Bruno did not long for a proven, confident centre-forward as he watched chances go astray and an expensively assembled Chelsea side end up goalless for the sixth time in 10 league games, it would be surprising. Chelsea remain marooned in the bottom half of England’s top division.

One of Potter’s last longer-term pronouncements in the Chelsea job had concerned Lukaku, who Chelsea made the most expensive signing in their history in the summer of 2021 when they paid Inter €113m for him. A year later, frustrated at a coolness towards him from Potter’s predecessor, Thomas Tuchel, he rejoined Inter on a year’s loan.

Lukaku would soon be eclipsed as most costly footballer on Chelsea’s register by Enzo Fernandez, the biggest buy of the many newcomers who arrived in the one, hectic transfer window that Potter oversaw.

Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku, centre, argues with Juventus’ Juan Cuadrado during the Coppa Italia semi-final first leg at the Allianz Stadium in Turin on Tuesday, April 4, 2023. AFP

Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku received a red card. AFP

Romelo Lukaku scores the equaliser for Inter on Tuesday. EPA

Players of Juventus and Inter argue at the end of their Coppa Italia semi-final first leg. EPA

Inter Milan's Romelu Lukaku gestures to the Juve crowd after scoring. AP

Juventus' Juan Cuadrado celebrates after scoring the opener. EPA

But, spanning the confusing period of Roman Abramovich, the sanctioned previous owner, being bought out by a US-based consortium of new owners or Tuchel being replaced by Potter – there is still no striker at Stamford Bridge who has convincingly made this case: that Chelsea’s huge squad is stocked with enough accomplished finishers to let them forget about Lukaku.

“He’s still a Chelsea player, and we’re monitoring him of course,” Potter said ahead of last weekend’s 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa, his last game in charge. “We understand where he’s at. He’s on loan, a fantastic player and someone we know and like.”

Where Lukaku is at right now is five goals in his last 180 minutes of action for club, Inter, and country, Belgium. Where Chelsea are at? No goals in their last 194 minutes.

Where Chelsea are in relation to the Champions League is seeking a new manager, six days away from a quarter-final against the holders, Real Madrid.

Winning the competition is their only realistic hope of being part of it next season. Where Inter, who would consider extending Lukaku’s loan but regard the price of a permanent return as unfeasible, are at looks healthier: facing a quarter-final against Benfica and with a chance on Friday to move up to third in Serie A.

All that shapes Lukaku’s own thinking about his future. He will turn 30 next month. He is due back at Chelsea, loan ended, in July.

He wants to be playing in the Champions League in September and to make up for two disruptive seasons: at Chelsea in 2021-22, when Tuchel left him on the bench for Premier League games almost as often as he started him; and this, the Inter return that was hampered, until January, by injury.

Most of all, Lukaku will study who ends up as Chelsea’s third different manager – under the second ownership regime – since he signed, for a second time in his career, for the club.

Lukaku, as much as any modern professional, has learnt the hard way how haphazard strategy at Stamford Bridge can seem.

After he first joined Chelsea as a teenager, more than 12 years ago, he played his 15 matches of that stint for three different managers.

If he is to play for Chelsea again, it will be under the third different head coach the club have employed since they decided in 2021, and then doubted in 2022, that Lukaku was as good a solution as any to the fundamental challenge of scoring goals.