Now 28 years old, Lukaku has waited for the right time to head back to the team that signed him when he was a young boy first coming to the UK. 

The first time at Chelsea, Romelu wasn’t ready to take the opportunity the way he would have wanted. After arriving in London it’s like all the players from overseas have great hopes of shining just like they did at their previous club, like Lukaku had been doing in Belgium.

He wanted to play every game in the Premier League and Chelsea could not offer him that at the time. This is why he took the opportunity to go to Everton and played the game he wanted, scoring goals and influencing a team that we all knew could not perform the same way without him.

I had the pleasure of meeting Rom in the USA and never forget the day. What a gentleman he was. I turned up at one of my dear friends’ Mbarak who Lukaku also came to visit, and when he knew I was on the way he ended up waiting so we could meet and have a chat. All I can say is I met a real winner, and I knew from the moment we shook hands that he is a great gentleman and all he talked about was how he could get better. 

This was also at the time he had a great season at Everton so Man Utd and Chelsea were interested in signing him, but he felt at that moment it was the best idea to go and play for Man Utd. He knew that would be a great challenge for him and it was great timing due to the way United were building the team. 

He left Man Utd after a short spell because he was being criticized by some fans for not always delivering what they wanted from him. As an outsider, I thought it was hard because he was and still is a player that never gives up, and will be the first in line when the team needs a leader to push them over the line. 

He ended up going to Milan to play for Inter and what a season he has had for them. He got everything he wanted; the goals that every striker wants and the self-belief that you need as a striker, and he took that over to the Belgium national team and made it happen again in the Euros. He attracted fans including myself to follow Inter closely because seeing the joy of him playing his game and scoring goals was great.

In the end he lifted the Serie A title with 24 goals and 11 assists, the league’s second top scorer behind Ronaldo.

I am now happy he is going back to Chelsea and I know he has some unfinished business so I look forward to seeing him shine. He is great and I feel he is a player that Chelsea need. He knows how it feels to be important and the need for scoring goals. We can talk about the money Chelsea is paying for him but they would not pay it if they didn’t believe they could get the investment back, and we can see they have been working on selling other players.

This is his time and I want to see the Lukaku goals and that smile that we all know! #mmlove