Needing a striker in the summer, Chelsea seemingly wanted Erling Haaland, but when it was made clear they wouldn’t be able to sign him no matter how much money they threw at Borussia Dortmund, they decided to go for the next best thing.
That was bringing back Romelu Lukaku, who had been sold years earlier to Everton, and since spent time at both Manchester United and Inter.
In the end, after some relatively swift negotiations, Chelsea got their man, spending upwards of £100m on the Belgian, who hit the ground running almost immediately at Stamford Bridge.
Since, however, Lukaku has hit a bit of a lull, failing to score in the Premier League since September 11th, and while an injury left him out of a few games, he has yet to start since returning to fitness, placed on the bench for the two games against Juventus and Manchester United.
He only managed an eight minute cameo in the latter, and it will be interesting to see how long Tuchel will keep him out of the starting line-up for.
Over in Italy, however, Inter are pleased with their business, currently sitting third in Serie A after 14 games, just four points off leaders Napoli.
Beppe Marotta was cornered by the press on Monday, where he was asked about the summer business of selling Lukaku to Chelsea.
He said, relayed by Calciomercato: “I’ve always said that the desire of the player matters. He wanted to go, and for the club, it was a great opportunity. But if he hadn’t wanted to leave, we would be talking about something else”.
