Chelsea AND Inter change plans for Romelu Lukaku next season

Carlo Garganese

• 7 May 2023 15:45 BST
• 3 min read

Just over a month ago, Romelu Lukaku was a completely unwanted man.

Inter Milan CEO Beppe Marotta had confirmed publicly that Lukaku would return to Chelsea at the end of the season.

The Italian media also unanimously reported that Inter had no intention of turning his loan into a permanent transfer.

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Chelsea, meanwhile, had no plans to reintegrate Lukaku into the first-team for 2023-24 and were hoping to offload him either permanently or temporarily again.

The reason was simple. Until the middle of February - and even in truth until April - Lukaku was enduring a disastrous season.

He had been plagued by injuries and when he had played his performances were largely poor.

Until the middle of February, Lukaku had scored just two goals and provided one assist in all competitions for Inter.

He also flopped at the World Cup, missing a host of big chances in the 0-0 draw with Croatia which eliminated Belgium from the group stages. One of these was an open goal miss.

Lukaku on form

Lukaku then started to pick up slightly ahead of the March international break, scoring three goals - including the winner in the Champions League last 16 versus Porto.

And since April, Lukaku has started to look more like his true self.

He has nine goal contributions in 10 matches over the last month - six of these starts.

He also hit a hattrick for Belgium versus Sweden at the end of March.

His performance in the 3-0 win over Empoli a fortnight ago - two brilliant goals and an assist - was the Lukaku from his first Inter spell.

In truth, at the age of nearly 30, we will surely never again see the unplayable Lukaku that was so destructive in two years under Antonio Conte.

But Lukaku's renaissance has now changed the minds of Chelsea and Inter ahead of next season.

Inter are now strongly considering another loan move for 2023-24 - something which Lukaku wants.

Meanwhile, Chelsea's likely next manager Mauricio Pochettino is widely reported to want Lukaku as his number nine next season.

How things have changed for a player who some even labelled as finished earlier this year.