In this day and age, the majority of elite sportsmen and women would be expected to be media trained.
The reason is simple and is complete common sense. No club wants their employees tied up in knots and having any of their words come back to haunt them.
Chelsea’s Romelu Lukaku clearly didn’t get the brief, however, as Sky Italy continue to feed various snippets of an explosive interview he gave some weeks ago, to a captive audience.
Each soundbite seems progressively worse than the last as far as the player is concerned.
It’s the last thing that Chelsea need at the moment too, having dropped off the pace at the top of the Premier League table.
Whether Lukaku’s words will cause resentment amongst his team-mates or not is a moot point, but it would be a huge surprise if the West London club didn’t take some sort of disciplinary action.
The latest nugget from the centre-forward, highlighted in a tweet from respected journalist, Fabrizio Romano, is Lukaku telling his former Inter colleague, Lautaro Martinez, not to sign for Chelsea but to stay put, as the Belgian will return.
Lukaku to Sky Sport: “I miss Lautaro Martinez, I could die on the pitch for him since day one I met him”. ? #Inter #CFC
“Lautaro Martinez coming here with me at Chelsea in the future? No… Lautaro, you can stay in Milan, I’ll be back there (laughs)”. pic.twitter.com/vhExnVrfD3
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) December 31, 2021
Quite what Chelsea’s loyal supporters are supposed to make of this is anyone’s guess.
Perhaps Lukaku has just been a little too honest for his own good and then been caught out. However, it’s the breadth of disparaging comments towards his current employers which could be too much for them to bear.
He is, after all, their record signing, and it’s not the proper way to behave as an ambassador for your club.
Are u mad lukaku