Petr Cech, now technical and performance advisor at Chelsea, has been speaking about the club’s record signing, Romelu Lukaku.
Lukaku made the return to Chelsea this past summer, setting the Blues back close to £100m.
But with Chelsea coming off the back of a Champions League triumph, a big-name striker did appear to be the final thing they needed to truly compete at the top of the Premier League once more.
And whilst Lukaku did fit that criteria on paper after a very successful, title-winning campaign with Inter Milan, his 2021/22 was a complete disaster.
Lukaku was hampered by injury and fitness issues, but his bizarre interview earlier in the campaign in which he expressed his love for Inter and hit out at Tuchel for his use of him really didn’t help.
All told, Lukaku went on to score just eight league goals during 2021/22, only one of which – vs Arsenal in gameweek two – came against a top-eight team.
Now, with the summer window open, Lukaku has been heavily linked with Inter and is even said to have been messaging them since Christmas.
But despite the writing seemingly being on the wall for the Belgian in England, Petr Cech has backed the forward to have a great 2022/23:
“I personally believe Romelu Lukaku will have a great season,” the former goalkeeper told Sky Sports News.
“Last season we saw how strong he can be when he came. Unfortunately, the long term injury he sustained against Villa slowed everything down, and then he had Covid-19 as well.
“We could see towards the end of the season when Romelu Lukaku was fit and ready to go how strong he is. We had a peculiar season with the Covid-19 issues around Christmas. He was one of those players affected.
“I have full confidence Romelu Lukaku will bounce back and have a strong season.”
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