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Extended Clip - Romelu Lukaku To Juventus: What The F***?!
1.5k Plays2 years ago
After Inter Milan pull out of deal to sign Romelu Lukaku from Chelsea due to the revelation that the Belgian striker has been secretly negotiating with Juventus, Nima Tavallaey Roodsari and Carlo Garganese discuss, debate and analyze the crazy soap opera this has now become.
This is an extended clip from this weeks free Monday episode of The Italian Football Podcast which is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google podcasts.
To listen to ALL complete episodes of The Italian Football Podcast, go to Patreon.com/TIFP and become a Patron for only $2.99 USD per month (excluding VAT).
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Transcript
Introduction to Italian Football Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Italian football podcast.
Lukaku and Inter Milan Negotiation Breakdown
00:00:06
Speaker
Inter have ended negotiations with Chelsea over the weekend after Lukaku.
00:00:12
Speaker
and his lawyer failed to reply to phone calls from club directors, inter-club directors on Friday. And that suggested that, well, did he actually still want to return to winter? Very, very bizarre because it seemed like this was gonna happen. It now looks like Lukaku is on his way to Juventus. Juventus have,
00:00:39
Speaker
a verbal offer of 40 million euros, including add-ons, but they will only make their move once Dusan Vlalovic's sole PSG are set to make an official bid for Vlalovic probably this week. So that's the situation.
Lukaku's Behavior and Reputation
00:00:57
Speaker
Let's start first of all, though, with the inter side of things and the Lukaku side of things, because they are connected. How much is it a shock?
00:01:05
Speaker
you can answer that. But just to finish the question, because it seemed as if Lukaku wanted into the negotiations were ongoing. It seemed like he wanted into an only answer.
00:01:22
Speaker
So why this behaviour? Why this sudden turnaround? That's exactly it. This is classic Romelu Lukaku. If you look at his career, he does not handle his relationships very well. He's absolutely hated by Everton. He's hated by Manchester United. Chelsea fans would like to put him in a catapult and send him to the moon. He's completely nuked his bridges with Inter.
00:01:52
Speaker
And now he's going to a club where the fans racially abused him six months ago, less than six months ago, so they don't want him. He's not very good at
00:02:06
Speaker
playing in building relationships that last. Anderelech and West Brom are probably the only clubs where he hasn't screwed the club and the fanbase is over. So I'd say it's par for the course with Romelu Lukaku.
Financial Motives Behind Lukaku's Decisions
00:02:20
Speaker
He seems like a very, very, like a person so easily
00:02:25
Speaker
Influenced by whoever he's close to that particular day It's like you could I think I actually think you know a broomstick could probably do a Jedi mind trick on him I mean, it's just he just by like he's so easily distracted You know, he was angry at pastoral law for allegedly, you know getting him to Chelsea and now he's got Sebastian Lidul who was his lawyer who
00:02:52
Speaker
You know, he seems to be the one that wants to get him to Juva because he's going to earn more money at Juva. He's being paid 11 million net per year. At Inter he would have to go down to six. So what is the motive then? Do you think it's money then? I think it's money and I think it's got to do with the fact that he didn't start the Champions League final.
00:03:14
Speaker
Yeah, because just to stop you there on the money thing, remember, he took a cut, didn't he, to join Inter, right? Yeah, and he was going to sign, he's going to go now to six million, six and a half million, which was low. So he made sacrifices in order to return to Inter, so he can't just solely be financial, you would think. I think it's to do with the fact that he feels that he sacrificed a lot to return to Inter,
00:03:40
Speaker
And he came to Inter and Inter wanted to cut his wages even more. He didn't start the Champions League final. And Romelu Lukaku is somebody who needs to be the main man. And Inter, he's not the main man anymore. And he didn't start the Champions League final either. And what he fails to understand is that he was awful for 70% of last season.
00:04:08
Speaker
Not just the injuries, it was afterwards. Edin Jekyll, that famous clip of Edin Jekyll laughing at him when he controlled the bowl like a six-year-old. I have to say, I'm not upset about this at all. I didn't want him, Edin Jekyll.
00:04:28
Speaker
I don't think it's worth the 35 million euros Inter are going to spend. I don't think he's worth the money he's going to command. I don't think he's ever going to be the striker he once was under Antonio Conte. I don't think he'll ever reach that level. I think he's still a good striker, as I've said on this pod consistently for a year now.
00:04:45
Speaker
And I think he will go into you that he will be the main man.
Questioning Lukaku's Timing and Strategy
00:04:51
Speaker
That's what matters to Romelu Lukaku. Yeah, I think that's what I think possibly is the main motive for him. Maybe he is going to become the main man then, but a lot of it just still doesn't add up to me in terms of the time frame.
00:05:03
Speaker
If it's financial, it doesn't quite add up, because like we just said, he's already taken sacrifices in the past and that's made it clear that money wasn't the most important thing, certainly last year, so why should it be this year? Then the Champions League final argument, I think yes, that's probably played a part of it, but then surely that it would have been apparent straight away after the Champions League final, and Inter would have not gone through all this
00:05:31
Speaker
if you want to call it a charade now, of all this negotiating that's been going on for the, I mean, the final, the Champions League final was five weeks ago. You know, we've had five weeks of negotiations with Inter to get to the stage where they basically now, Inter basically now got close to agreeing a transfer fee with Chelsea.
00:05:52
Speaker
And and then all of a sudden on on the Friday in one day it all falls apart So it just the time frame like if that if it really was if he really was upset about the Champions League final Why did it you know, why didn't it come become clear straight away? Is it that maybe the event has bid only? sort of like materialized
00:06:14
Speaker
concretely recently? And then when it became a possibility, then he started to listen to it? Or did he just overplay his hand? Did he did him and his lawyer maybe try and use the event as offer as a way to get to get the the into a higher
00:06:34
Speaker
I don't know. And then maybe it backfired. The ninja just said, right, we're not playing your games anymore. I don't know. It just, it just doesn't really add up to me. But maybe that's just Lukaku for you. That's the thing.
Inter's Feeling of Betrayal
00:06:47
Speaker
It doesn't add up because he's not a very, um, he's, he doesn't strike to me as a very, very strategic person. I don't think he understands these guys. I think he's very,
00:07:01
Speaker
From what I understand, his mother is advising him and he listens to his mother and she's been kind of saying, well, they felt betrayed by not playing him in the Champions League final. They felt that he'd return to full fighting force and blah, blah, blah.
00:07:18
Speaker
Inter, however, the problem is with all of this is that he hasn't communicated this with Inter. Dimartio was reporting that he was even negotiating with Juva before the end of March. Yeah, when he found out that he was being rotated and all of that, that he felt that he wasn't going to be the main man, but already back then. I'm not sure whether that's true or not.
00:07:41
Speaker
I think most of these things, when relationships sour, people tend to want to put out their version the most, but it's quite clear that Inter are absolutely betrayed and furious with him. They're out. They're not interested. They don't want him. They don't want to have anything to do with him.
00:08:00
Speaker
Lukaku called our Celia to try to mend bridges that phone call lasted about 45 to 1 45 seconds to 1 minute and 15 seconds and there was a lot of shouting and screaming involved Before it was hung up so inter and inter are completely United in this like from the coach to the management to the players like everyone seems Like they feel completely betrayed and he spoke to the ultras as well. Is that correct?
00:08:24
Speaker
Well, I mean, that's what's been reported, is that he spoke to the Kurvanord and said that he would come back, that he was not going to sign for Yulva. Since then, Kurvanord have denied speaking to him.
00:08:39
Speaker
But then again, again, I don't really believe that either, because I think they would look like absolute idiots if they confirmed that they spoke to him and he lied to them. And then he goes to Juver that will put them in a position where they will have to act. And I don't think they want to put themselves in that position. I think everyone has a vested interest in this mess.
00:09:00
Speaker
to make themselves look good, and so I don't...
Potential Impact of Lukaku Joining Juventus
00:09:03
Speaker
What is the feeling of the fans overall towards Lukaku now, and what would the feeling be if he joined Juventus? If he were to join Juventus, he would be the biggest traitor in Inter's modern history. There's no doubt about it, because Inter moved heaven and earth to get this guy. And they forgave him when he came back.
00:09:24
Speaker
He forgave him when he came back, they backed him even though it was a difficult season, everyone was looking forward to next season, that he was going to alternate with Turram. He completely did this, created a complete and utter mess. And that game, I'm kind of glad that that game is being played Inter Juvets on series in February, because I think that Inter will be handed a permanent stadium ban for the rest of the season after that game.
00:09:51
Speaker
The amount of abuse that he's going to get at that game, if he turns up in a Juventus shirt at the San Siro, is going to be unlike anything you have ever seen before.
00:10:05
Speaker
And you have to remember, this is a guy who has declared his love. I mean, let's remember what he did at Chelsea when he was asked, could you ever play for Juve and Milan? And he goes, looks down dramatically and says never about 15 times. And that's no exaggeration. My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my. He says, when you do things like that, when you lie to people like that,
00:10:30
Speaker
When you mess with people's emotions like that, that has repercussions. Personally, I don't care. I didn't want him. I'm actually happy he's going. I don't think he's worth the money. I don't think he's worth the wages. And him going to Juva makes the city more spicy.