After enduring a difficult return to life in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge, a whole host of transfer rumours have emerged linking the Belgium international with a move away from the West London club.
Back in April, 90min reported that Chelsea are prepared to let the 29-year-old leave this summer, amid interest from former club Inter Milan and Paris Saint-Germain.
However, Italian media outlet La Repubblica claimed that Lukaku was more likely to join Antonio Conte at Tottenham, rather than making a return to the Serie A.
During football.london’s latest QnA, Gold was asked if there is any truth in the Lukaku rumours. In his response, he claimed:
“Conte loves him but I’d have my doubts over whether Chelsea would deal with Spurs and also whether Lukaku would feel he’d get to play week in, week out with Harry Kane at the club. He wouldn’t be the main man.
“They may well be able to play together but what that would mean for Son and Kulusevski I don’t know. It’s a lot of money for a player who hasn’t had the happiest time back in the Premier League. I just can’t see Chelsea dealing with a London rival and their former manager, but who knows what could happen in this crazy summer.”
Hailed a ‘complete striker’ by Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci, Lukaku was a dominant force under Conte at Inter, having netted an impressive 64 goals in 95 games.
However, the Italian boss now has Harry Kane at his disposal, whom he is also said to be an extremely big fan of.
When compared with positional peers across Europe over the past year, Kane ranks in the 86th percentile for non-penalty expected goals, whereas Lukaku comes in at the 68th percentile for the same statistic (via FB Ref), and it doesn’t take any such statistics to see the former is a superior playmaker too.
Therefore, with Conte’s preferred formation utilising just one out-and-out striker, it seems unlikely that Lukaku would join Spurs with Kane still at the club, ‘crazy’ summer or not.
