Romelu Lukaku seems immensely relieved to have completed his loan move back to Inter Milan, less than a year since he left Serie A for a then-hoped-for grand return to Chelsea and the Premier League. Which, unfortunately for both club and player, did not quite turn out as expected but to the contrary.
Inter had last summer sold the Belgian to the Blues for £79.5m – a club record for the London club – but the move proved to be a bitter disappointment for club and player as not only did the Belgian striker fail miserably to deliver the goods but scored just eight Premier League goals in 26 games and he was also the main cause of a huge fallout with the club following an interview with Italian television in December when he criticised the football strategies and tactics of manager Thomas Tuchel and even waxed lyrical about hopefully returning to Inter.
Less than seven months later, Lukaku has now gotten what he wished for.
If memory serves correctly, this current development, and his personal sentiments, are in direct contrast with what he so eloquently voiced when he lost no time in following Conte out of the door and heading back to Chelsea last season, a club he had left in 2014, on a five-year contract.
“I’m happy and blessed to be back at this wonderful club,” Lukaku said at the time.
Now apparently the fickle-minded striker is singing a totally new song.
Reports suggest Inter will pay Chelsea a loan fee of £6.9m plus £3.5m in bonuses if they win the Serie A title and cover his wages for the season.
The 29-year-old is also thought to have agreed to a pay cut to secure the move that will see his wages drop from £325,000-a-week at Stamford Bridge to around £210,000. Well, guess it’s a case of different strokes for different folks when the going gets tough. After all, it’s all about assuaging the bruised ego for not having been able to deliver the goods when he made his ambitious return to Chelsea last season.
“It seemed impossible for me to come back here but we managed it and I’m grateful to him [Inter president Steven Zhang] for the way he kept pushing and believing it was possible,” Lukaku said in an interview with Inter TV.
“We managed to do it in the end and I’m delighted to be back.”