Despite investing heavily in attacking talent last summer, you can understand why Chelsea are on the lookout for another striker this time. Their attacking numbers made for dismal reading last season. Perhaps the most alarming of those numbers was that Jorginho was their top scorer in the Premier League with just seven goals! You can read more about their struggles here. Those struggles, coupled with the likely departures of Olivier Giroud and Tammy Abraham, leave Chelsea with only Timo Werner as a striker. And after his goal-missing exploits last season, investing in a striker makes sense.
There are three main players the Blues are linked to – Erling Haaland, Romelu Lukaku and Harry Kane. All three are quality strikers and no doubt will improve Chelsea’s attack. However, one player who stands above the rest is Romelu Lukaku. The Belgian is in the form of his life at the moment and at 28, is in the peak of his abilities.
Lukaku is a player Chelsea should really regret selling. Despite impressing in loan spells at West Brom and Everton, he was deemed surplus to requirements. He has always been a Chelsea fan, and Didier Drogba is his idol. In 2017, after enjoying a highly successful campaign with Everton, Antonio Conte wanted to sign him for Chelsea. He ended up signing for Man United, and that looked like Chelsea’s last chance to sign him.
But, even though he has iterated a desire to stay at Inter, there’s a possibility Chelsea could sign him. Even if there’s the slightest chance of signing him, Thomas Tuchel should go for it. Lukaku has already proven himself in the Premier League and has quite an impressive goal scoring ratio.
None of the three strikers are cheap, but Haaland and Kane are easily going to cost in excess of 100 million. While Haaland might be the most prolific goal scorer, and at 20 might be the long term solution, for that amount money, he could be a huge gamble. And while Kane might be the best overall striker of the lot, the fact that he is a Spurs player is the problem. Spurs won’t want to sell their best player to one of their fiercest rivals.
With Lukaku, none of those above problems exist. He said he has unfinished business at Chelsea, and from the bottom of his heart, perhaps wants he wants another shot at proving himself at the club. However, with Inter having already recovered 70 million from the sale of another Chelsea target Achraf Hakimi, convincing them to sell another one of their assets would be a big ask.
Still, if there is any chance Chelsea can sign Lukaku, they must simply take it.