Lukaku's Italian Adventure

Lukaku made one of the big summer moves this year, leaving Manchester and the Premier League after scoring an incredible 113 goals at the age of just 25. He’d had a great season on loan at West Brom, and then at Everton before he moved to Manchester, tallying up more Premier League goals than great strikers like Didier Drogba and the same number as legend Ian Wright.

Under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer he did get the game time he wanted and it looked like a move away from Manchester was inevitable. The big question was where would he go?

Juventus looked like they really wanted his signature, but the talks broke down and it was Inter that snapped Romelu up for £75M. Conte finally got the man he had wanted while he was at Chelsea, and the pair were ready to take on Serie A together.

Lukaku scored on his Serie A debut in a 4-0 win against Lecce, and again grabbed a goal in his second match to hep Inter take three points against Cagliari. Nine games into the season he has seven goals to his name and Inter top the league by two points, with their only defeat being against the Old Lady who have one game in hand.

A lot of people forget that this player is still in his mid 20’s, and he has gotten a hard time at every club he has played for. Some United fans even said they were happy when he left, but with problems finding the net this season you would have to wonder how many of those fans would take him back. When he arrived in Italy he was also met with some racist abuse, but Rom is a special character and has kept his head down focusing on his game throughout everything.

To fully understand how he can be so calm and collected in the face of adversity, you have to look at his childhood. He has told the story of how he would have bread and milk for lunch every day when he was a young boy, and he once caught his mum topping up the milk with water to make it last longer. When you grow up in these circumstances it can only mean that you build incredible mental strength.

And that is clear in the way he plays today. One of his old teammates at West Brom, Jerome Thomas, said that they would have to pull him off the training field at the end of every day. Away from the field he has also learned a total of eight languages, already speaking fluent Italian after 3 months in Milan.

I had the same thoughts when I arrived in France at Rennes, because I didn’t want the feeling of not being able to communicate properly with my teammates. I was walking around the training ground with my pen and my French book, which really helped along with my French teacher that I was seeing twice per week. After threemonths I was ready and could talk to anyone.

I’ve never understood why you would go play in another country and not leave with an extra language. But Lukaku is an exceptional circumstance where he can now speak eight languages. I would love to have that skill too (but I’ve still got time!).

Romelu said: “It’s important for me as a player that they understand me perfectly. How I want the ball. Where I want the ball. I have to know those exact words in Italian because the subtleties are different in every language. There’s no substitute for that.”

Rom’s size is a scary enough prospect for most defenders, but when you combine it with his work ethic and determination it becomes a defender’s worst nightmare.

Inter are doing great because Conte has invested smartly and of course the club is tired of seeing Juve doing so well. Now that they are the team to watch in Milan they want to push for bigger things again. Bringing in the right players and staff is of course the right way to do that, so it will be interesting to see how the season pans out in Italy this time. #mmlove