Chelsea target Romelu Lukaku's not worth crazy money - he blows hot and cold, writes Harry Redknapp

Chelsea target: Romelu Lukaku
Getty Images
Harry Redknapp18 May 2017

Romelu Lukaku could win the Golden Boot this weekend but he would still have to show more consistency to be a success at Chelsea.

There’s a lot of speculation that Diego Costa will leave Stamford Bridge this summer having been offered crazy money to go to China and that will give Antonio Conte a massive hole to fill in his team.

Costa looks like a nightmare to manage at times but he is a real handful, leads the line well and his movement is great. He’s been a key reason why Chelsea have won the title in two of the three years he has been at the club and they will struggle to find a natural replacement because top centre-forwards are so hard to find.

I’m told there’s a strong chance Lukaku will go back to Chelsea. The transfer fee will be huge and you might look at it and think he isn’t worth it but Paul Pogba’s £89million move to Manchester United from Juventus last summer changed the market completely.

Now clubs think they can charge even more for promising players. Lukaku’s goal return has been good but he blows hot and cold. On a good day, he is very difficult to play against but he has too many quiet performances for me to put him up there with the best centre-forwards in the world.

He has that same physical presence as Costa and would be the most obvious fit if Conte is going to stick with playing one up front next season. But if Lukaku does sign, it will be another case of a player leaving for next to nothing only to be re-signed a few years later for a silly amount.

In Pictures | Chelsea vs Watford | 15/05/17

1/38

Pogba is the obvious example of that. Michael Keane might be going back to United, too, for a big fee. Lukaku might end up costing Chelsea more than £100m across two transfers. It’s madness, really, but that’s the level we’ve got to now.

Lukaku will be up against Alexis Sanchez when Everton go to Arsenal on Sunday with just one goal separating them as the League’s top scorers. There’s talk of Sanchez going to Chelsea and I’ve heard he likes London but it would be a surprise if that happened.

The Arsenal board would probably be lynched by their own fans if they sold Sanchez to Chelsea. He is so good that he’d improve any team but if the Gunners have got any ambition at all, they have got to hang on to him. Manchester City, Paris St Germain and Juventus are all queuing up, though, so it might not be easy.

Alvaro Morata is the other striker Chelsea have been linked with and he’s a top player but his injury record would make you wonder if he can cope with the demands of English football, playing every three days.

Lukaku knows the League well which is another reason they like him but Morata has a track record of scoring goals at the highest level. We don’t know whether Lukaku can. He has all the attributes to do it and I can see him being successful but replacing Costa with him is still a step into the unknown.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in