Romelu Lukaku played a part in preventing Jeremy Doku from joining Chelsea
Romelu Lukaku played a key role in Chelsea FC’s failure to sign his Belgian compatriot Jeremy Doku, according to Anderlecht academy boss Jean Kindermans.
The 30-year-old personally advised the 21-year-old to remain at the Belgian club and reject interest from Chelsea. The latter then eventually joined Manchester City this summer.
Lukaku and Doku both progressed from Anderlecht, with Lukaku being among the senior players. The striker has been giving career advice to the 21-year-old since he was 15. It would appear the advice has been to our detriment.
Chelsea were keen on signing the youngster, and Anderlecht were struggling to hold onto the forward. But Lukaku’s future swayed Doku’s decision to join the Blues. Kindermans says Lukaku sent a video to Doku’s family to continue playing for the Belgian club instead of accepting any offer.
This saw the youngster remain at the club and make 37 appearances for them before joining French club Rennes in 2020. The academy boss also revealed this to Sunday’s Mirror (h/t Express) and said:
“I remember taking Romelu into my office about the problem of getting young players to commit to us—Doku in particular. Romelu replied. Come on, pass your phone to me; I’m going to call him.”
“But I didn’t want to do that because a phone call gets quickly forgotten. So, instead, I got Romelu to convince Jeremy to stay. I still have the video on my phone. On it, you can hear Romelu giving advice to the Doku family, saying, Hey, guys, stay with Anderlecht for a while; you’re good, and so on.”
Even as a player for Chelsea, Lukaku has not come any good for the club. When he was here, he publicly acknowledged that he wanted to leave the team, which says a lot about a player of his status. He has now outdone himself by denying us a world-class winger.
Had Doku joined us he could have developed into a key player for the Blues. But he should not take advice from a player who hasn’t been loyal to any team and left the club where he was given a massive opportunity.
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But now that the Belgian player has joined Manchester City, it is unimportant anymore. However, let’s hope that Chelsea finds a means to permanently dispose of Lukaku once his loan period is finished.