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Lukaku was brought back to Stamford Bridge in a \u00a397.5million deal in August 2021 at the request of Thomas Tuchel just three months after winning the Champions League for a second time. The German was convinced Lukaku was the missing piece in the puzzle – a natural goalscorer – after defensive midfielder Jorginho ended the season as their top scorer.<\/p>\n
But just eight goals in 26 appearances followed and Lukaku criticised his manager in an interview with Italian media, causing Tuchel to leave him out of the team. Within 10 months, he had gone from potential saviour to unwanted flop and Boehly was left to clean up the mess from his predecessor Marina Granovskaia.<\/p>\n
One of his first acts as interim sporting director was to negotiate a loan agreement with Inter that saw them pay a \u00a37m fee and get the majority of his \u00a3290,000-a-week wages off the books. A year later, Chelsea insisted on a permanent deal, but both Inter and Juventus refused to budge from a loan, causing Lukaku to become frustrated and end talks with both clubs.<\/p>\n
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DON’T MISS <\/strong> Despite receiving significant offers from mega-rich Saudi Arabian clubs, Lukaku wasn’t keen to follow the long line of players heading to the Arabian Gulf. Instead, he opted for a surprise reunion with Jose Mourinho at Roma, with Boehly again securing a decent financial deal whereby Lukaku will reduce his wages for the final two years of his contract.<\/p>\n Whether deciding not to move for Martinez was wise or not is another matter, given that the Argentina international is a completely different profile of striker to Lukaku and he may well have been a success after bagging 28 goals last season.<\/p>\n But Boehly has been burned one too many times from expensive transfers – Wesley Fofana and Mykhaylo Mudryk have struggled to impress – and few could blame him for deciding to sign a much cheaper Nicolas Jackson for \u00a332m instead.<\/p>\n
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Chelsea paying the price for ignoring Pochettino plea after transfer failure[OPINION] <\/strong><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/67\/590x\/secondary\/4969305.jpg?r=1695222992646\")
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