Blues icon Paul Canoville said Romelu Lukaku’s second Chelsea stint has been a failure so far as he believes the club should shift their attention to young talent Armando Broja for next season instead.
Twelve goals overall, but only five in the Premier League — this has been Lukaku’s goalscoring record for Chelsea this season so far.
Considering he has had over 20 league goals for Inter Milan in Serie A in each of the last two seasons, the numbers are massively disappointing.
Obviously, he has not played as often as he would have liked, with only 12 league starts so far, but it is mostly down to his losing his spot to Kai Havertz.
So what’s next for the Belgium international? Chelsea of course did not sign him on a club-record deal to be a backup striker.
According to Canoville, it is “best” for both parties to part ways at the end of the season.
“It’s a shame things haven’t worked out for Romelu,” the former Chelsea winger wrote on Twitter.
“It’s a strange one to me as he started out on fire.
“He sure doesn’t fit the system when he doesn’t put in the kind of shift that Kai does.
“Probably best moves on in the summer and especially with Armando Broja coming back.”
Broja, who has already had six goals for Southampton in the league and nine in all competitions, have caught a lot of attention with his performance this season.
It is unlikely that he will be ready to be a regular starter for the Blues next season, but he can be a much cheaper backup option than Lukaku.
Paris Saint-Germain have also reportedly been monitoring Lukaku’s situation at Stamford Bridge.
So while Chelsea are unlikely to recoup the reported £97.5million they agreed to pay to Inter last summer, they may still be able to sell the out-of-favour striker.
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