It was perhaps to be expected that Chelsea would ensure Romelu Lukaku would issue a response to fans of the club after his Sky Italy interview had caused widespread condemnation.
The Belgian had seemingly given the media outlet his time unauthorised by the West Londoners, and if that weren’t enough to furrow a few brows, what he had to say was certainly enough for manager, Thomas Tuchel, to drop him from the Liverpool game at the weekend.
After going 2-0 down at Stamford Bridge, the Blues managed to salvage a 2-2 draw, though it’s arguable that if Lukaku had been on the pitch, he could well have affected the final score, given the rich vain of personal form he found himself in, in the lead up to the match.
After a cooling off period, Chelsea released a video of Lukaku on their official Twitter account.
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To the player’s credit, he didn’t attempt to hide from the statements that he’d made but preferred to make a direct apology to the club’s supporters, the manager and his team-mates.
In order for Chelsea to be able to move forward and start to claw back some of the gap between themselves and Manchester City, the apology should ensure that a line is drawn under the whole fiasco.
It won’t be until the West Londoners play again – on Wednesday night in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Tottenham Hotspur – that we’ll see if that’s the case.
If there are repercussions, frankly, the player only has himself to blame.
A message from Romelu.
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) January 4, 2022