Mourinho’s Decision On Lukaku’s Contract To Cost Chelsea Millions
REUTERS/Nigel Roddi
While Jose Mourinho has moved to Manchester United, Chelsea may still have to face the repercussions of his decisions back during his second term at Stamford Bridge.
According to reports, it was the Portuguese manager who advised the Blues not to include a buy-back clause in his transfer move to Everton.
Chelsea have suddenly found themselves on a dearth of strikers, after their long-time target Romelu Lukaku was poached by Manchester United within a matter of days.
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With several other prospective moves falling down, and Antonio Conte choosing not to play Diego Costa up front, it only leaves a small set of players to choose from, and no one particularly affirmative to handle the requirement for a big club like the London-based outfit.
Reuters / Carl Recine
The Belgian striker moved to Everton from Chelsea three years ago for a mere £28 million – which was considered an overkill amount for the youngster back then. Three seasons on, he has proved his value and more, inflating his price by almost 3 times.
REUTERS/Eddie Keogh
While Everton were quoting an exorbitant figure of £75m for the striker to ward away any prospective transfer clubs including Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, and Manchester United, apart from Chelsea themselves, the Red Devils ended up bagging the deal with an even higher estimated value of £90m (including add-on clauses).
But, according to the Telegraph, Chelsea missed a golden opportunity when they sold the 24-year-old to Goodison Park, s Jose Mourinho – the then Blues boss – chose against adding a buy-back clause in the contract involving his move.
If the clause would have been present, Chelsea could easily have bought back the player at a much cheaper price, as dictated by the contract, than what’s quoted by the Merseyside club.
It is also understood that Lukaku, then, had no qualms with such a clause in his contract either, as he was just a youngster who was slightly unsure if he would live up to the high valued transfer back then.
A buy-back deal would have given him a cushion if he fell, as Chelsea could have bought him back for a much cheaper price, which would have reduced the actual transfer fee which the Belgian would have had to justify.
Reuters / Andrew Yates
Although the clause was never added, as it did not have the manager’s full support, Lukaku started proving himself and the world wrong. He proved his high-profile move with serious quality and much more in just 3 seasons at Goodison Park.
The striker has molded himself to be among the best in the Premier League. In the past 2 seasons for Everton, he has scored 18 and 25 goals respectively, which is no easy feat, especially since he did not play for any of the ‘Big 6’ clubs. And it’s not just his club team, as he has been performing exemplary for his national squad of Belgium as well.
Written by Srivats Venkateswaran 
Sports writer with a long experience of writing in football.Was football team head at EssentiallySports. Still deeply misses Sir Alex and Berbatov at United. An introvert at heart with a poetic hand. Engineer by choice, writer by passion.
