It seems as thought Romelu Lukaku’s love affair with Chelsea could be coming to an end this summer.
The Blues would reportedly be looking for around £63million to allow the striker to leave this summer.
This year, the contest for forwards was lit up with prospects such as Lautaro Martinez, Karim Adeyemi and of course Dusan Vlahovic.
It was a wonder why Chelsea had never bid for Vlahovic – dubbed the “Zlatan Ibrahimovic from Belgrade“.
Dusan Vlahovic was tipped to walk in the shoes of Robert Lewandowski, challenging Erling Haaland’s numbers.
His £62.8million January move to Juventus was quite premature considering the amount of interest honing in on the striker.
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The first half of his season saw him register 20 goals in 24 matches at Fiorentina.
According to Tuttomercato, Chelsea, Manchester City, Barcelona or Juventus were the four likely destinations for the Serbian.
His representatives were clear that Arsenal was not an option for their star player, and he preferred a move to one of the other four clubs that had been keeping tabs on him.
It seems Chelsea missed out on a repeat of Lukaku’s situation.
As it stands, Vlahovic has only scored only 7 goals in 17 games.
A major downgrade from the numbers that he was achieving at Fiorentina who play in the same league as Juventus, Serie A. The opposition hasn’t changed, but the style of play has and the 22-year-old is said to be struggling with it.
Former Juventus midfielder Alessio Tacchinardi spoke to SportMediaset about why Vlahovic’s January move has not been a match made in heaven.
“The reduced goal average is due to the game of Juventus,” he said.
“The team does not put him in a position to score goals right now.”
“He doesn’t create so many chances and plays badly, in this way the strongest striker in the league, doesn’t shoot on goal.” Sound Familiar?
Romelu Lukaku is arguably going through the same thing at Chelsea.
The Belgian complained about Thomas Tuchel’s style of play back in December.
He said: “I’m not happy with the situation and that’s only natural. The head coach has decided to play a different system and I mustn’t let up, I need to keep working hard and be professional.”
The problem that many Chelsea fans are having with Lukaku is his lack of desire and willingness to create.
The argument is that the players around him are creating, and he is just not on the end of these chances.
Opinions are subjective, but the fact is, that if Chelsea want to sell Lukaku this summer, they’ll need to deep dive into a pool of different options that will suit our football.
Vlahovic is a prime example of a forward that the Blues could have gone for and heard the same old song.