Chelsea: Let's not overreact to Lukaku's comments

I, as I’m sure many are, have been watching Lukaku’s progress with West Brom with great interest, and I like what I see. He has become their top goal scorer, and is being more and more heavily relied on as the season moves onwards.

The prospect of his, and many others’ return from loan, is extremely exciting. However, while they are away on loan, it is important that they retain that commitment and ambition to one day play for Chelsea.

With this in mind, his recent comments are a little worrying in some respects. After West Brom’s recent and epic loss to Reading, he had this to say:

“At this time I’m just looking at my own career and West Brom, I don’t really care about what Chelsea are doing at the moment.”

I like that he is concentrating on his own progress and that of West Brom’s as he absolutely should be, but that second part feels a little like a slap in the face. You can understand and forgive his words though, if you look a little more into it. He is getting a lot of criticism from Chelsea fans, and I think it’s very unfair.

It was a tactless comment to make, but to say that he doesn’t care about what we are doing at the moment does not necessarily mean he does not care about Chelsea at all, nor do I think this is what he feels. What I think he means by this is that he is simply trying to concentrate on himself, even if he didn’t say it that way.

He is still 19 (I know, it’s freaking unbelievable) and just as inexperience can show on the pitch, it can show off it too. That’s all it was. He needs to learn how to deal with press a bit better, because this is not the first time he has made a controversial comment.

If you don’t believe that what he said came from him trying to get across that all he wants to do is progress as a footballer, then here is some more of what he said after the game:

“I’m not happy with my performance because we didn’t win, we lost. It means I didn’t work hard enough. I didn’t score the other opportunities that I had. I should have scored 4 goals and got an assist. I’m always hard on myself.”

He has an outstanding attitude, and if he doesn’t lose it, he will become a world beater. If only Torres still thought like this. It’s this and the fact that he is showing true quality that makes me wish he was at Chelsea right now. However, there is still a lot to work on and it is certainly best that he stays on loan, as he is gaining experience he could never be guaranteed with us right now.

Don’t look too much into what he said. I don’t believe for a second he doesn’t care about us, full stop. If anything, Chelsea are the ones that have disrespected him through our treatment of him over the last season. I expect big things from this lad; he has the potential to be special. Chelsea are the only ones that can prevent this.

Please don’t mess it up, Chelsea!