Readers of United In Focus will know I am hardly Romelu Lukaku’s biggest fan.
But some of the whispers and criticising of the striker’s behaviour sully his reputation and if they are coming from the club’s end, they are needless and only open up a potential slanging match.
To recap, The Times reported over the weekend that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer decided to kick Lukaku out of the club after the striker declared himself unfit to play.
The report stated: “He complained of minor muscle injuries at the end of sessions to prevent Solskjaer from playing him. The United manager decided he would never play for the club again.”
True or not, bringing it up now in March 2020 does not actually do United any favours, even though it’s designed to paint Solskjaer in a positive light.
Lukaku’s different version
To Lukaku’s credit, he has refused to criticise the club in recent interviews.
He was quoted by SkySports: ” Ole wanted me to stay, but I told him I was over. I didn’t have the energy. All credit to him because he’s been a man and he helped me make the move away.
“Ole is doing a good job and the results are going for them. I’m wishing them nothing but the best.
“It’s a club that gave me a platform that I’ve never seen in my life, so for me to be disrespectful about Man U or any other club I played for in England I think is a bit childish. I think I went past that stage of talking back to people.”
Move forward
We all remember last summer in pre-season when Lukaku trained, but didn’t play any games, but that was not particularly strange considering it was common knowledge the club were trying to sell him. Eventually he was sold for £74 million to Inter Milan.
United don’t actually miss Lukaku now. The club play better football without him in the team, the only issue was that nobody was signed to replace him, and the club’s lack of depth was exposed by injuries early in the season.
Lukaku is now taking the high road and says he isn’t responding to criticism of his behaviour, although you wouldn’t blame him if he wanted to put his side across.
There’s no need to continually throw his reputation under the bus. Lukaku’s moved on, and so have United. So let’s see it left like that.
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