Chelsea legend Didier Drogba has confirmed he’s occasionally in touch with Blues forward Romelu Lukaku.
The Belgium international hasn’t had the easiest of times in his second spell at Stamford Bridge, having returned to the club in a keenly-anticipated transfer from Inter Milan last summer.
Chelsea fans may be concerned that they’re not seeing the best of Lukaku, who looked such a world class performer in his two years at Inter, though he has shown signs of improvement at the west London giants’ successful Club World Cup bid.
Speaking to The Athletic after Lukaku’s performances in these big games, Drogba admitted he’s in touch with Lukaku sometimes, though he doesn’t feel he needs to give the former Manchester United and Everton man much in the way of advice.
“We have been in touch at times,” Drogba said. “I’m not going to talk to Romelu every day obviously, but he knows what he has to do. He decided to come back to Chelsea, to put himself under a little bit of pressure. But he is there and delivering.
“I don’t need to tell him that (how he can do what he did — recover from similar problems to go on to become a Chelsea legend) because I think he saw that. You need to be patient.
“As a big player you have to accept all the criticism. You need to go home and think about how you can improve your game and how you can bring something else to the team.
“That’s what he is doing. That’s what I was doing when I was playing. I don’t want to compare myself to him too much because he’s a great player, he is doing what needs to be done to win games like we saw today and I’m really happy about it.”
Chelsea fans will no doubt hope that Drogba can prove a positive influence on Lukaku, with the pair often drawing comparisons due to their similar playing styles.
Lukaku could certainly do well to learn from Drogba, who also made a slow start to life with the Blues before earning legendary status with the club.