Graeme Souness lamented Romelu Lukaku’s lack of maturity after the Belgian’s ‘damaging’ comments on Chelsea and Thomas Tuchel.
Romelu Lukaku grabbed headlines in the past week when his interview with Sky Sport Italia, which was supposedly recorded three weeks earlier, went live. While the context might have been slightly different from the time of recording, some of his comments stirred the pot with his club Chelsea and manager Thomas Tuchel.
Lukaku appeared to lash out at Tuchel, suggesting he wasn’t happy with the German’s methods in utilising him at Chelsea. Fans and experts have been irked by the interview’s timing, coinciding with the Blues form slipping away.
Something similar about Tuchel was said by the Belgian’s former manager Antonio Conte, who worked wonders with the striker at Inter Milan in the last two seasons. However, many think Lukaku’s form since making the £97.5 million move to Chelsea in the summer did not warrant him making those comments in the interview.
Graeme Souness has joined the brigade in lamenting the striker’s actions, suggesting he needs to act maturely. The Liverpool legend’s comments appeared on the Liverpool Echo via Sky Sports, where he told Lukaku’s words might have damaged the club and their manager, Tuchel.
Souness said, “I can’t tell you a worse thing that a player can do at this moment in the season. To come out and say basically. I don’t want to be here, I don’t want to play with players I’m playing with anymore and the manager. And how that damages Chelsea going forward, it has to.
“He’s 29 years old; he’s not 19. He should know better. It’s totally disrespectful. It damaged the football club enormously. It damages the manager. The first thing I would have done is pull the person and say you have to apologise. You need to stand in front of everyone in the dressing room and apologise unreservedly.”
There was plenty of reaction to the Lukaku interview, mainly from Tuchel himself, who was visibly angry. The German boss labelled the whole exercise as ‘making unnecessary noise’ while suggesting the striker seemed happy in his squad.
The manager decided to drop him altogether from Chelsea’s clash against fellow title challengers Liverpool on Sunday. How much longer Lukaku remains out of contention as a repercussion of his interview remains to be seen.