Tuchel’s attempted joke about Antonio Conte did not go down well
Romelu Lukaku is an Inter Milan player again, having sealed a season-long loan to the Serie A club on Wednesday.
The Belgian striker left Inter a year ago for a second stint at Chelsea, who were willing to fork out a club-record fee of £97.5m to bring him back to Stamford Bridge.
The move was expected to take Chelsea closer to Manchester City and Liverpool in the Premier League title race, but Lukaku’s return proved to be an unhappy one.
The 29-year-old struggled with injury and form during the first half of the season and admitted in an interview before the turn of the year that he hoped to return to Inter while still at the peak of his powers – a comment that didn’t sit well with some Chelsea supporters.
Official, confirmed. Romelu Lukaku joins Inter on a one-year loan deal until June 2023, no buy option or obligation clause. Inter will cover full salary. 🚨🔵 #Inter
Here Lukaku with Inter president Steven Zhang 🎥⤵️ @Inter pic.twitter.com/enF2yfOC89
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 29, 2022
Tuchel’s ‘daddy’ joke upset Lukaku
His relationship with manager Thomas Tuchel was also rumoured to be strained, which exacerbated matters for Lukaku.
This is supported by a revelation from Goal’s Chelsea correspondent, Nizaar Kinsella, who said Lukaku was left unhappy at Tuchel jokingly referring to his old Inter boss Antonio Conte as his ‘daddy’ while the pair watched a Tottenham game together.
“Somebody told me Romelu Lukaku was chatting to Thomas Tuchel while watching a Premier League match, a Spurs game,” Kinsella told The Italian Football Podcast.
“Thomas Tuchel said ‘there’s your daddy,’ about Antonio Conte. It was just a joke, but apparently, it didn’t go down very well with Romelu Lukaku.”
Lukaku had been in contact with Inter ‘all season.’
Despite not being a regular starter for Chelsea throughout the 21/22 season, Lukaku still managed 15 goals across all competitions.
Inter have agreed to pay Chelsea a loan fee of around €8m (£6.9m) to bring Lukaku back, with the player also believed to have taken a pay cut.
He described the move as “like coming home”, also revealing he had been in contact with Simone Inzaghi “all last season”.
