Blues agree fee for ‘interesting young prospect’
Both clubs have announced that they have agreed a fee and the forward is due to arrive in London within the next few days for a medical.
Anderlecht general manager Herman Van Holsbeeck said that the club will be sad to see Lukaku go, but that it is a win-win situation for everyone:
“We regret the departure of Romelu.
“He was discovered by us and trained in our youth teams. But this transfer is a win-win situation for everybody.
“We’ll surely look for a suited replacement and hope to announce him soon.”
Andre Villas-Boas also shared his thoughts on the player soon after Chelsea’s 3-1 victory against Rangers at Ibrox today, which was the final game of the club’s preseason, and the Portuguese manager spoke highly of Lukaku.
AVB said:
“He is a very interesting young prospect and the situation is now that we have to position ourselves to maybe get this kind of talent.
“So I would say that anything can happen.”
(Sky Sports)
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Lukaku is only 18, so we won’t need to get anyone to make way in order to stay within the squad quota (even though Yury Zhirkov’s departure is expected to be officially announced soon) as he is under the age of 21.
However, with Fernando Torres, Didier Drogba, Daniel Sturridge, Salomon Kalou and Nicolas Anelka in Chelsea’s ranks, it’s probably a few too many to go into a season with six forwards and I think one of them should be moved on, but which one?
It’s obvious Torres isn’t going to be moved on and Drogba is expected to stick around for at least one more year, whilst Sturridge deserves his chance and Kalou has proved to be a useful ‘super sub’, which leaves Anelka, who isn’t going to worry anyone for a central role and I’m not a fan of seeing him play in a wide position. His contract is also set to expire next season and could leave next summer for free.