Chelsea star fires parting shot at club with social media actions

Romelu Lukaku has appeared to endorse Rio Ferdinand’s criticism of the treatment of Chelsea’s senior stars. The 31-year-old is set to depart Stamford Bridge once again before the end of the summer transfer window.

His 2021 return, which cost the Blues £97.5million, didn’t work out on or off the pitch. He’s since spent a season on loan at Inter Milan and Roma and is now a target for Napoli, whose reported loan offer with a £25.5m obligation to buy falls below Chelsea’s £36m release clause.

If there was any doubt about Lukaku’s feelings, he looks to have made them clear with his social media activity. He liked a post on Instagram from Ferdinand in which the Manchester United legend slammed Chelsea’s actions towards fellow outcast Raheem Sterling.

Speaking on his podcast Rio Presents, Ferdinand said: "I see all the young players, especially in that squad, talk about Raheem. It's like Uncle Raheem. Palmer, the likes of Reece James, it's Uncle Raheem.

"And he's looked after a lot of these boys, they come to him. So when you kick that guy in the changing room, all of them are going to limp at some point and they aren't going to take it well and you create a problem in your own dressing room.

"There's nobody delivering that message with any clarity, and from what I'm hearing Sterling has got no understanding of where his situation lies. He hasn't had anyone in the hierarchy come to him and say ‘listen, you're surplus to requirements, we want to get rid of you’.

“And what I'm hearing is that the last conversation that was had was like ‘everything is fine’. I'm hearing they're getting told by email and stuff like that. This is wild.”

Sterling was left out of the matchday squad for Sunday’s 2-0 defeat to Manchester City, prompting a statement from his representatives demanding answers from the Chelsea board. They’d already come in for heavy criticism for banning academy graduates Conor Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah from training with the first team as they look to sell them for pure profit.

Lukaku’s second spell with the club took a turn for the worse when he publicly declared his desire to return to Inter in a bombshell interview with Sky Italia just months after leaving. He finished the 2021/22 season with eight goals in 26 league games after falling out with Thomas Tuchel, and he’s never been reintegrated into the squad despite Chelsea having five different managers since then.