Thomas Tuchel says $ 130million signing Romelu Lukaku’s comments ‘not helpful’ as problems continue to mount for Chelsea
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel denounced the comments of record signing Romelu Lukaku in a recent interview in which he hinted he would be leaving the club, calling the remarks’ noise we don’t need “.
Belgium striker Lukaku was hailed as the missing piece of Chelsea’s star patchwork when he returned to Stamford Bridge from Inter Milan in August for a fee of around $ 130million.
The powerful forward had just enjoyed a career best season in Italy, winning the Serie A Player of the Season title and scoring an impressive 30 goals in 44 appearances across all competitions.
Lukaku was expected to provide the type of focal point up front that Chelsea have been missing since Spain international Diego Costa left the club in 2017.
Lukaku: “I’m not happy with the situation and it’s only natural. The head coach decided to play a different system and I must not give up, I must continue to work hard and be professional. I am not happy with the situation but I am a transplant surgeon and I must not let go. pic.twitter.com/xamRI8DcGV
Lukaku has scored seven goals in 18 appearances in a campaign interrupted by injuries and illnesses, and frustration appears to be escalating both at Lukaku’s side and at the London club.
“I am not satisfied with the situation at Chelsea”, Lukaku told Sky Italia in an interview that aired Thursday night, but was reportedly taped several weeks ago.
“Tuchel chose to play with another system. I won’t give up, I will be professional. I’m not happy with the situation but I’m a professional – and I can’t give up now. “
The 101-caps international added: “I think everything that happened last summer was not supposed to be like this… how I left Inter, the way I left the club, how I communicated with Inter fans – it bothers me because now was not the right time.
“Now is a good time to share my feelings. I have always said that I have Inter in my heart: I know that I will come back to Inter, I really hope so. I’m in love with Italy, it’s a good time to talk and let people know what really happened.
“I really hope from the bottom of my heart to come back to Inter not at the end of my career, but when I’m still at the top level to win more together.
“I want to apologize to the Inter fans. The timing of my words was wrong: what you did for me will stay forever. “
These comments appear to have fallen like a balloon of lead at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea are currently in the midst of an injury crisis with the latest casualty being England full-back Reece James, who looks set for a long time on the sidelines after sustaining a hamstring injury in the recent home draw against Brighton.
Ben Chilwell has undergone an operation and Timo Werner, Andreas Christensen are also among the missing players.
Tuchel appeared to be in damage control mode when he spoke about his star striker on Friday.
“We don’t like it”, said the Champions League winning coach. “It brings noise that we don’t need and it’s not useful.
???? “I needed a performance like this today. “
Romelu Lukaku understands Thomas Tuchel’s reasons for leaving him on the bench pic.twitter.com/Pg6ix6AVVi
“We don’t want to get more out of it than it actually is. It’s easy to take lines out of context, shorten lines, make headlines, and later realize that it’s not that bad and maybe not what it meant.
“We don’t like it, I don’t like it because it’s noise we don’t need. We need a calm and focused environment and that doesn’t help.
” I do not feel [Lukaku is] unfortunate. I feel the exact opposite, if you asked me yesterday morning, and that’s why it’s a surprise but that’s why I’m not the right person to ask. If there is anything, it’s in camera, that’s for sure.
“Like I said, that’s what you read there. It’s usually very easy to take lines out of context and grab the headlines to focus.
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“I fully understand the process and that’s why there is a lot of noise, not a little noise.
“But still, we’re not here to read the headlines.
“We can take the time to try to figure out what’s going on as it doesn’t reflect the day-to-day work, attitude and behavior that Romelu shows here at Cobham. We’re going [talk] behind closed doors and openly. “
Tensions within Stamford Bridge couldn’t have come at a much worse time.
Chelsea welcome Premier League rivals Liverpool to a game that could make or break their ambitions of maintaining a realistic title challenge on Sunday, ahead of a two-man EFL Cup semi-final against neighboring London Spurs.
A trip to fugitive league leaders Manchester City is also on the horizon on January 15.
Tuchel and Chelsea are hopeful the ship will be stabilized by then, but if Lukaku continues to fuss over a move, that could well lead Roman Abramovich to have to pull out his checkbook again – something the club had hoped to avoid afterwards. announcing Thursday significant financial losses.
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