There’s been talk over the past few days about what might happen to Romelu Lukaku next season, and whether the Belgian forward will be loaned out against after his current deal with West Bromwich Albion expires.
Supposedly, the player is keen to have regular European football ahead of his country’s probable qualification for next year’s World Cup – that’s according to the press, anyway.
This decision will probably depend on who the next Chelsea manager is, so any assumptions about Lukaku’s future would be premature at the moment, but would it be the worst idea to keep him at Stamford Bridge and settle him into the first-team next year?
The natural counter to that suggestion is that Lukaku is not quite ready to be leading the line for a club of Chelsea’s size, and while I agree with that, there’s still room for him to be involved alongside Demba Ba next season. Given what the squad already has in attacking midfield, and the volume of chances which the trio of Juan Mata, Eden Hazard, and Oscar should be creating, a development-stage player like Lukaku would have ample support behind him. Don’t forget, this is someone who has scored thirteen goals from fifteen starts this season, so he’s hardly a Premier League novice.
The other benefit to keeping Lukaku at Stamford Bridge would be, obviously, that it would give Chelsea the opportunity to dump Fernando Torres. Financial Fair Play may well be an almighty bore, but it is still in-play, and Torres’ performance quite clearly doesn’t justify him being one of the highest earners at the club. Get the Spaniard off the wage bill, cut the losses on his original transfer fee, and move on from the whole sorry episode – whilst still preserving the squad depth in the forward position.
That’s a very neat solution.
Radamel Falcao and Edinson Cavani are very exciting names, and who wouldn’t want to see them in the Premier League, but are they really the right direction for Chelsea at the moment? This club is loaded with attacking talent, and whatever money is available in the Summer would probably be better spent servicing the deep midfield positions, and probably also by acquiring another centre-half.
Those are the priorities, and Lukaku’s return and integration back into the club – albeit slightly premature – would probably allow Chelsea’s balance sheet to look a lot healthier in the process.
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Get Torres out and brink Lukaku in to develop along with Hazard, Mata and Oscar for the betterment of Chelsea and stop senseless spendings that we have experienced in Andrew and Torres.