Thomas Tuchel is not happy with Romelu Lukaku’s interview that appeared on Thursday at Sky Italy. The Chelsea manager reacts for the first time at the press conference on Friday to the statements of his 28-year-old center striker, who indicated that he was unhappy in London. “Let’s face it, of course I don’t like this,” Tuchel said.
Lukaku openly criticized his manager in the startling conversation. “I am not happy at Chelsea,” said the Belgian attacker. “The coach has chosen to play a different system. I am not happy with the situation, but I cannot give up and I have to keep working hard. That suits a professional.” For Tuchel, Lukaku’s interview came like a bolt from the blue.
“I am surprised, because I don’t feel that he is unhappy at all, on the contrary,” responds the German coach. “No one with us was aware that he was unhappy. I don’t like the statements because it creates noise that we don’t need. It’s easy to take words out of context, shorten sentences, make headlines and then to realize it might not have been quite what he meant. But obviously this isn’t helping.”
Tuchel enters into an internal conversation with Lukaku. “When you’re a big player like Romelu, something like that gets big in the media. He should know the value of his words when he comes with a message like this. We’re going to talk to him behind closed doors. We will take the time to find out where this is coming from as this is not a reflection of the daily work Romelu does for us on the training pitch.”