Gary Lineker, Micah Richards and Alan Shearer debated the legacy of former Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku amid the Napoli star’s playing career.
Romelu Lukaku spent two seasons at Old Trafford after Manchester United dropped a whopping initial transfer fee of £75m to sign him from Everton in 2017.
The 33-year-old Belgian striker arrived during Jose Mourinho’s reign and Lukaku netted 42 times in 96 appearances for the Red Devils during his spell at the club.
Lukaku fell out of favour under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Old Trafford and Man Utd made the decision to sanction his sale to Inter Milan for £74m in 2019.
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Alan Shearer responds to Gary Lineker’s question about former Man Utd star Romelu Lukaku being ‘underrated’
Speaking on The Rest Is Football podcast, Gary Lineker said: “So, Romelu Lukaku, I mean, his goalscoring record, wherever he’s been, [he] has been pretty extraordinary, also at international level.
“I’m going to pose the question, is he slightly underrated?”
Alan Shearer dropped his two cents on the debate around Romelu Lukaku and the Premier League legend thinks he underperformed in his Manchester United spell.
“I think maybe that depends on which club he’s been at,” he told Lineker.
“Perhaps [he] didn’t do enough at Man United, did he? He was always a threat and hard to play against, I thought.
“But then at United, I thought he should have scored more.”
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Micah Richards points to the reputation that Romelu Lukaku has as a striker after he reacted to Gary Lineker’s claim
Following his time at United, Lukaku played for Inter Milan in two separate spells and even made a return to England for another ill-fated run with Chelsea.
Lukaku left Stamford Bridge for the second time in 2024 after loan spells at Inter and Roma and returned to Italy to sign for Serie A side Napoli.
Micah Richards insisted that Lukaku was underrated and the Belgium international was often the target of online social media criticism when something went wrong.
“Yeah, I think that’s fair,” Richards said.
“I think it’s one of those things where, because we’re in the era of social media, and when you’re a big lad up front, if you don’t get hold of the ball, people just call you a donkey, don’t they?”
Responding to Richards, Lineker added: “He was definitely not that.”
Richards then continued: “But all the memes going around about him wearing Timberland boots, similar to [Viktor] Gyokeres earlier on in the season until he won the league [with Arsenal].
“But in terms of, if you speak to people who have played the game, I think he’s got his respect.”
Former Chelsea and United striker Lukaku has found the back of the net 15 times and has 11 assists in 45 matches across all competitions for Italian side Napoli.
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