A week’s wage fine and a public apology. That the final punishment for Romelu Lukaku, after the striker caused a stir among his teammates, club, and the fans due to his comments on the unauthorized interview for Sky Sport Italia. After claiming that he was unhappy under current coach Thomas Tuchel and even suggested that he would be coming back to Inter (one day), the Belgian striker was removed from the first squad before the very important game with Liverpool.A message from Romelu.— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) January 4, 2022 But, after a meeting with Tuchel, things cleared up, but still, Lukaku was forced to publically apologize to the fans, after he did the same to coach Tuchel. He will also be fined with a week’s wage and will be in contention for the Carabao Cup semi-final against Tottenham on Wednesday.“To the fans, I’m sorry for the upset that I caused. You guys know the connection that I have with this club since my teenage years so I totally understand you guys being upset. Obviously, it’s up to me now to restore your trust and I’ll do my best to show commitment every day on the training ground and trying to make sure we win games. To the manager I apologised and I said it to my teammates and the board, because I think it was not the right moment to do the interview. I want to move forward from this and make sure that we start winning football games and I perform for the best team in the best manner. My club was Chelsea, everybody knows that from being 10 or 11 years old I said I wanted to play for Chelsea. There were clearly images when I came on my school trip that I said I wanted to play for Chelsea. So for me I came here when I was 18 it didn’t go so well. Now I’m back at 28 in the prime years of my career – I can’t really mess this up” said Lukaku to Chelsea TV.(2.10) CHELSEA (3.45) TOTTENHAM (3.50)Coach Tuchel also explained the situation after the meeting with his unhappy striker.“He is very aware of what happened and what he created. He feels the responsibility to clean the mess up. Maybe we will have a bit of smell still from it, of course. He can handle it. He has also no other choice. He cannot expect now everybody to be super happy the very next day but he is still our player and we have good reasons and a lot of reasons to make him play for us, to convince him, to fight hard that he is our player. I hope the supporters can take this also and keep on supporting the team because we are in a moment where we really need the support” said Tuchel.
