Between 2014 and 2016, Sadio Mane scored just 25 goals in two seasons for Southampton, while Romelu Lukaku scored 45 goals for Everton across the same period. If you asked most fans which of these two players could make the step up from mid-table to become a modern great, almost all of them would pick out the latter as the one destined for stardom.
Fast forward to today, the summer of 2022, and Mane has departed Liverpool as a club legend after six glorious years at Anfield. With 120 goals to his name, winners’ medals in the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup, European Super Cup, and Club World Cup, he is undoubtedly one of the most inspired signings of many at Liverpool. Costing just £34million to sign from Southampton, where he’d looked little more than decent, he took his game up a level, worked his socks off under Jurgen Klopp, and is being wished nothing but the best by Liverpool supporters today as his move to Bayern Munich is confirmed.
By contrast, in the same time frame we’ve seen Lukaku move for combined transfer fees of roughly £241million, win just one trophy, and flop in his two chances at big Premier League clubs. His most recent struggle at Chelsea is now genuinely seeing him being talked about as one of the worst Premier League signings ever.
Lukaku’s clubs are not entirely without blame here, of course; we’ve seen what the Belgium international is capable of at Inter Milan, where he played some of the finest football of his career to make up for that difficult spell at Manchester United. Even after his disappointment at Chelsea, it’s little surprise Inter have been keen to have him back, and he may well flourish again in the right system that works for him. Many will argue that when you’ve got a player that good, it’s worth changing your approach a bit to accommodate them, but there was little sign Thomas Tuchel ever intended to do that.
Romelu Lukaku returns to Inter, here we go and confirmed! Full agreement now signed on loan deal until June 2023, €8 loan fee plus add-ons. ??? #CFC #Inter
?? Lukaku’s salary will be around €8m.
?? NO buy option or obligation clause.
?? Add-ons related to team performances. pic.twitter.com/3sEeQtfXs0
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 21, 2022
Sources have confirmed to CaughtOffside that “the writing was on the wall” for Lukaku after his Sky Italia interview, and it could be that Tuchel should have…
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