It’s tough to cheer Chelsea fans up right now, especially with transfer news.
If the last two years have taught them anything, it’s that bunging a load of cash at players and agents doesn’t do much to improve the squad. The belief we can buy our way back to the top has long faded away, and the fact that we can’t really even afford to buy anyone makes that concept even more fantastical.
One thing that might bring a glimmer of hope to a depressed Blue right now – as well as bringing a little money to the club’s bank account – is the idea that Romelu Lukaku might be sold in the summer.
That would hopefully bring in some decent wedge, as well as getting his wages off the books. The final major mistake of the last ownership would be wiped away, and we can move on to solving the major mistakes of the new ownership.
Last night, Transfer Insider Rudy Galetti dropped an update which claims that Lukaku could be “among the main targets” of the Saudi League’s Private Investment Fund. He’s a big name still (more or less) at the top of his game. We imagine he’d score a comical number of goals in that league if he went now.
🚨🎯 Romelu #Lukaku is emerging among the main targets of the Saudi League.
🗣️ The PIF already approached the 🇧🇪 ST and also #Chelsea, which want to sell Romelu – now on loan at #ASRoma – permanently.
📈 To date, a move to 🇸🇦 appears to be a very likely scenario. 🐓⚽ #CFC pic.twitter.com/fAqaSDKdCE
— Rudy Galetti (@RudyGaletti) April 7, 2024
Lukaku quite admirably resisted the overtures from Saudi last summer, and kept playing and scoring in Europe. He may well decide to follow that path once again. But if no tempting offers are made, the weight of cash down that other path might eventually break his resolve. Galetti says a Saudi move is now “very likely.” We shall see.
Thank God for Saudi money! The Lukaku saga stands as the single greatest indictment of the Abramovich era—a player we sold low and bought high while missing out on nearly all of his considerable goal haul. Look it up. The numbers will make you weep when you consider how invaluable he would have been at his peak when, instead, we were saddled with the likes of Morata and Higuain.
In a larger sense, Lukaku reflects (just as much as the stories of Salah and KDB) what happens when you place such a high priority on “winning now” that you effectively mortgage your future by failing to develop your young players. Time and time again under Abramovich we spent eye-watering sums to purchase a big name on huge wages at the expense of nurturing talent that was already in-house. The managerial carousel under the ruthless Russian contributed to this disjointed and short-sighted approach and had everything to do with our massive failure with Lukaku. Even after we made the mistake of selling him off to Everton in the first place, we failed to bring him back for the manager who most wanted him (and whose system would most have benefited from his talents) in Conte. And then we doubled-down on our mistake by purchasing him later at an exorbitant fee for a manager (Tuchel) who didn’t want him. It’s the story that, in my mind, best encapsulates the sum total of the Russian’s reign at Stamford Bridge not least because—like the managerial carousel and the scattershot transfer policy—it still haunts us nearly two years after his departure.