Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne line up with the Belgium national team (Photo by Omar Havana/Getty Images)
Chelsea fans will no doubt have bad memories of Romelu Lukaku, his recent second stay at a club that promised so much.
The Belgian international has had some ups and downs along the way, but overall he has had a great career.
Lukaku first emerged as a true wonder child at Anderlecht and eventually joined Chelsea in his first spell as a teenager.
He then went on loan to West Brom, where he achieved good results, but was unable to establish himself in the Chelsea team and was eventually transferred to Everton.
From there he later joined Manchester United for big money, but struggled until he was released to Inter Milan.
Romelu Lukaku’s agent set for second spell at Chelsea
Lukaku revived his career with some impressive performances for Inter, which led to Chelsea luring him back to Stamford Bridge on a big-money deal.
While the current focus of many Chelsea fans will be on how to buy tickets for Chelsea vs. Ajax in the Champions League, they may also be interested to hear Lukaku’s agent’s insight into what went wrong for his client at Stamford Bridge.
Federico Pastorello said at the time: “At the time it was the right decision. Then there are the human variables. No one could have predicted Lukaku’s difficulties. It was probably less because of the environment and more because he knew the club well, and more because of his relationship with the coach.”
“He has an almost father-son relationship with (Antonio) Conte, and that difference in approach, along with the injury he sustained, affected him in some way. Without that, the story would have been different.”
Chelsea aim to reunite Romelu Lukaku
In fact, Chelsea will face Lukaku’s Napoli team in the second half of the Champions League.
The Blues will look to improve after a somewhat shaky start to their return to competition this season and will next face Ajax.
Chelsea comfortably defeated Bayern Munich in the first leg, but only defeated Benfica at home in the second leg.
This is a completely different Chelsea team than we are used to seeing at this level. The West London side had more experienced names in their squad when they won the trophy in 2012 and 2021.
However, Enzo Maresca’s young team is constantly improving, so it will be interesting to see how they deal with opponents such as Ajax and Napoli, and whether they can reach the knockout stages.