ROMELU LUKAKU HAS completed his record-breaking transfer from Manchester United to Inter, the Serie A club confirmed.
The Belgium international has moved for a fee understood to be €80 million (£73m), making him Inter’s most expensive signing.
Lukaku signed a five-year contract with the Nerazzuri after a two-season stay at Old Trafford, as Antonio Conte landed the striker he has long hoped to acquire.
“Inter were the only club I wanted, because Inter is ‘Not For Everyone’. I’m here to bring the Nerazzurri back to the top,” said the striker.
Lukaku’s move brings to a close a protracted saga that has rumbled on for much of the close season, with it becoming clear early on United wanted him out.
The 26-year-old joined United from Everton in 2017 for a fee in the region of £75m, the Red Devils beating Conte’s Chelsea to him on that occasion.
He was first-choice striker for the best part of 18 months under Jose Mourinho, scoring 16 Premier League goals in his first campaign, but the Portuguese coach’s successor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer preferred the more mobile and agile Marcus Rashford to lead the line.
Lukaku still managed to make an impact, scoring twice in United’s famous Champions League turnaround away to Paris Saint-Germain in March, but those goals proved to be his last for the club.
Transfer rumours swirled right from the start of United’s pre-season, with Lukaku often training apart from the rest of the squad due to an apparent injury, but behind the scenes Solskjaer is said to have been irritated by his attitude.
Solskjaer was reported to have given Lukaku a dressing down after the Belgian leaked confidential data about the United squad’s top running speeds during pre-season on social media earlier this month.
In doing so, Lukaku attempted to disprove criticism about his perceived lack of pace, as the data showed him to be the second quickest United player behind Diogo Dalot, but his post also exposed Juan Mata and Luke Shaw – both among the slowest – to ridicule.
Lukaku is not thought to have returned to United since, having spent time training with his former club Anderlecht this week, despite the Red Devils’ apparent demand for him to return on Tuesday.
Despite previously appearing close to joining Juventus in a swap deal involving Paulo Dybala, Lukaku arrived in Milan during the early hours of Thursday to finalise his switch.
The deal sees Inter break their long-standing transfer record of €49m, paid to Lazio for Christian Vieri in 1999.
🤳 | THIS PLAYER...#NotForEveryone @RomeluLukaku9 pic.twitter.com/pDuKLiNS58
— Inter (@Inter) August 8, 2019
I’d like to thank the Ulster fans, who whilst no doubt disappointed to have no representation in the team, have behaved with perfect decorum and good grace. It’s awesome to see them row in behind Ireland as true fans rather than whinging on social media for days. There are some lessons in that for others
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@Daniel O’Keeffe: so we don’t need that rubbish song Irelands Call on Saturday so ??
@tom o neill: I’m not sure why you’re bringing anthems into this conversation, a topic that I personally feel Irish rugby should not touch with a barge pole. The Irish team proudly represents all traditions on our shared island of Ireland.
It’s a testament to the commitment and good character of Ulster fans, that despite Hendo and Stu both having strong claims to be in the 23, I have seen no outrage or claims of provincial bias.
Compare and contrast with the response of fans of another province because Frisch decided he wanted to nip home for a short visit.
@Daniel O’Keeffe: agreed, lots of talent that isnt getting its opportunity on the international stage due to poor provincial coaching
@Daniel O’Keeffe: any chance to take a dig :-)
@Mark Murphy: I posted back row my entire life. I might be in the worst 100 rugby players in the country, but POM and I have always agreed, if you can give someone a rib tickler at the bottom of a ruck them you take it.
@Daniel O’Keeffe: POM and yourself… You couldn’t have chosen a better role model, that’s for sure.
@Mark Murphy: both mediocre at best talents. I can only hope he follows my lead into retirement. He’s better at gardening than I am, but I’ve managed to convince Durex to start researching the Munster fanbase to inform their new extra extra sensitive condom range.
@Daniel O’Keeffe: while they’re at it perhaps they could come up with a prawn sandwich flavor prophylactic sheath for yourselves to enjoy?
@Mark Murphy: I’m not sure I need a flavoured prophylactic Mark, anything I put in my mouth, I’m very sure isn’t diseased. Maybe if you had hadn’t didn’t god knows how many generations at the auld inbreeding, ye could have the same confidence?
@Daniel O’Keeffe: you can never be too careful with that rent a fan crowd up there… Just saying… Safety first!
@Mark Murphy: right you are Mark. Nothing worse than seeing a back row giving away a penalty for dropping to his knees around the tackle. That Coombes is a right divil for it.
We may pick this up on Sunday, I need to give my full attention to the Scots ( and Saffa Scots) until then. There is one lad on twitter who keeps doubling or quits every time we play screaming “Finn is the best”. I’m afraid I might have Special Branch make a visit for exploiting a Scot of near human intelligence at times. Bis bald.
@Mark Murphy: ps that prawn cocktail riposte was top notch. I didn’t think you’d have as good a response to the durex dig as that. I reckon it’ll be a good URC and European Cup knockouts here in the comments section.
@Daniel O’Keeffe: haha!!
Harsh on Henderson, the line-out improved when he came on against England
@Noel Roe: Thought he might get a start alright.
@Noel Roe: Someone had to be dropped for the 5-3 bench and Baird is ahead at the moment in terms of impact
@Paul Ennis: as a 6, certainly. Baird as an international lock, however, is not something we know that much about. It seems clear that Leo Cullen sees him primarily as a 6 now (although that may be at least partly to do with Leinster’s pipeline in the respective positions)
@Noel Roe: Henderson should be starting if performance is meaningful. What does showing loyalty to players who don’t perform say to the wider squad?
hmmm whereas usually I do think there should be accountability for a poor performance, in this instance it’s the right call and expecting the pack in particular to bounce back this week. Let’s go Ireland. Side note, how on earth is Nash clear to play, surely that is dangerous.
@Carmine Lorenzo: balacoune should b in
@Gary Galligan: Nope Nash there on merit. And he’s obviously been medically cleared so that’s not an issue
@Gary Galligan: RB is not on form at the moment and hasn’t been playing for Ulster either.
@Carmine Lorenzo: astounded he’s included. Couldn’t move after the knock last week. Mad he’s somehow cleared to play again???
@Brenda Collins: yea. I am no medic but….
@Brenda Collins: Do you seriously not understand he has access to a full medical team? The players job is to play, the coaches job is to pick the strongest team available and the medical determine who is fit. With the wellbeing of the player the highest priority.
@Carmine Lorenzo: yeah agreed , no clue how Nash got cleared in this day and age
@Gary Galligan: no, he offers nothing in defence and drifts out of the game. He has gone backwards over the last 2 seasons
@bee bop: if the players well being is the highest priority then Nash would be stood down regardless of what the medics said. He was prone on the pitch, visibly distressed. The test they undergo are far from comprehensive. Sometimes coaches should just do the right thing and not use the cover of the medics.
@Gary Galligan: Methinks this is a tongue in cheek comment?
@Gary Galligan: He’s too old for the under 20s
@stu nolan: hahahaha “regardless of what the medics said”. Have fun collecting your Darwin award.
@Brenda Collins: Yeah it was an almighty whack. Freeman is one of those 100kg+ and over 6 foot wingers. I know medically he’s been cleared, but I think surely there must be a longer stand down if you fail a HIA. It just smacks of inconsistency seeing as Frawley also failed a HIA and he’s been stood down and gone back to Leinster. Regardless, I suppose we must have complete faith in the medical teams and trust them that they and the management have the player’s best welfare at heart. I predict Nash to get a brace of tries this weekend ;)
@stu nolan: unless you have a medical background and experience of Head and brain injury and assessment they I would imagine the experts who have passed Nash may just know a little more than you on this matter.
@Gary Galligan: against Duhan VDM?? No chance. Same reason Larmour was unlikely to be picked had Nash not made it – would probably have been Ringrose.
@chris mcdonnell: interestingly World Rugby’s own chief medical advisor resigned over the HIA and return to play protocols being farcical.
The Irish medical team are starting to develop a habit of leaving concussed players out there longer than they should be (e.g. Frawley at the weekend, Loughman previously against the Maori being a high profile one).
@chris mcdonnell: because a medical professional has never made a mistake before? More importantly, why take a risk? What’s there to lose giving the lad more time to recover from a knock that took him out of the game? The robustness of the HIA process is not exactly watertight, and is pretty arbitrary.
We could all see what happened to Nash, how he was after, how he was stopped from playing on. I can’t say I didn’t see the collision and aftermath, then shrug and say “but hey, the medics must be 100% certain he’s grand”.
You would hope th IRFU would be more enlightened on this.
@stu nolan: so we should discard medical experts and go by how it looked on TV
@Gary Galligan: are you having a laugh
Harsh on McCloskey
@Gary Galligan: if we started the full ulster 15 you’d say the next 8 would be on the bench.
@Gary Galligan: Yes but it would have been even harsher to leave Ringrose out
@Paul Ennis: Exactly. His flexibility to play wing is also a massive benefit. Probably the only reason we could’ve done with him over Henshaw last weekend.
Don’t know how O’Mahony is holding his place. Was anonymous last weekend and gave a brainless yellow card away for the second time in the campaign.
Baird makes that back row much quicker.
O’Mahony to do the last 20-25 minutes.
He will be subbed early anyway if he’s not yellow carded by then.
Frawley is hard done by.
Harry Byrne hasn’t really set the world on fire. I’ve been listening to people talk about Byrne and how high his potential is for the last 4 years but have yet to see him string a set of games that would give you encouragement.
@Jimmy Bean: the whole pack (and pretty much the whole team) were way off it last week not just O’Mahony. Also O’Mahonys yellow was a team yellow after an accumulation of penalties as far as I remember?
@James Donnelly: The yellow card was for cynically killing the ball on the ground on the first ruck directly after a line break to just outside our 22.
It’s not the decider between ether he should start or not, but let’s agree on common facts so we can have that debate in good faith.
@Jimmy Bean: How quick we are to jump on one poor performance and claim POM should be dropped. He will make up for it this weekend.
@Paul Ennis: he will definitely be well rested, so I expect a good performance from him.
@Jimmy Bean: I think AF’s management philosophy is built on trusting and empowering players. Part of that evidently involves allowing them a chance to redeem themselves after last week’s under-performance (let’s also remember that they lost by a single point; it was a bad day at the office but not a catastrophe). But I’d say AF has made it clear that a similar performance failure this week will not be tolerated.
In any case, I suspect after this 6N we’ll see some permanent departures (Healy, Murray, maybe POM)
@Jimmy Bean: If you read the article you’d see Frawley is not available. POM wasn’t alone in making little impact and if you picked a team based on that it’d be quite different.
@Paul Ennis: he’s usually ( and incorrectly ) thrown under the bus first if things don’t go right.
Very harsh on Henderson who was very good when he came on last week, one of rte few bright spots. We look very light at lock cover now, and lineout options late in the game
@Andrew Donohoe: I think the 2 penalties cost him.
@chris mcdonnell: and a poor carry into contact which allowed a turnover (albeit it was a poor pass to him in first instance)
@Andrew Donohoe: Baird and Conan in bette form for club and country.
@Andrew Donohoe: Would have preferred him to Conan.
As we were expecting. No drama. Just need to put Twickers in the rear view mirror. This may not be the starting XV v SA!
@John Morris: Hansen will b there no doubt huge miss
@John Morris: I’m pleasantly surprised by the rationality of these comments.
Great to see Harry Byrne in the squad. He is a very talented player who has had a fair amount of injuries. Hopefully he will see an injury free run of games and realise his true potential.
@Tom Reilly: I’d prefer Frawley as he covers more positions.
@TL55: I think there’s a philosophy question about what you want your replacements for; are they there to provide injury cover and insurance (which is an inherently defensive mindset), or are they there to give you offensive weapons that can make a game-changing impact? Last week we definitely went for the latter. I don’t think that was necessarily a mistaken decision, but as it played out a more defensive 5/3 would probably have won us the game.
@Brian Corcoran: English pack was on top.
@Ciaran Kennedy: agree – the English pack was undoubtedly dominant. But did our 6th forward (Baird) have any impact on the game? I’d argue not really. In retrospect, I don’t think having only 5 forwards would have materially weakened us.
Meanwhile, having only 2 backs definitely did. Losing Nash after 5 minutes meant we had to rearrange our backline, which significantly reduced our attacking & counter attacking threat. Once Frawley also got injured, we were into Plan C in the backs, which I think hampered both our attack and defence.
Glad to see a 5/3 split but it’s a pity we can’t make room for Henderson as he’s better second row cover than baird. Honestly I’m pretty disappointed Andy Farrell hasn’t tried to develop many new players this campaign, especially since he won’t be around next year during the lions. Hopefully Simon Easterby can still do a good job but it’s not ideal
@Rainbows In the Dark: you call for Henderson over baird but you are disappointed that farrell hasn’t tried to develop new players? Doesn’t really make sense
@chris mcdonnell: It makes perfect sense. Baird’s not an international second row and we need cover there. I’m not saying leave Baird out of the team, I’m saying to keep him as a backrow. And in regards to development I’m not talking about bench spots, I’m talking about starts for people like Baird and Ahern
How bad does POM need to play to lose his place. How many more yellow & red cards! He has been useless this campaign
@conor carroll: You obviously didn’t bother to watch the French game when he was outstanding and also good in the Wales game but le’ts just instead wildly overgeneralize ” useless in this campaign”
@conor carroll: who left the door open in your creche you tool
@John Ludgate: He was poor against Wales
@conor carroll: i think he’ll struggle to start in SA tour if his form continues but he has just enough in the bank and is AFs captain to get the start. He’s also a much better 6 than Darge and will get at that soft Scottish underbelly, against a fired up England with 3 second rows he was made redundant
5/3 better bench split. It was brave and daring by Andy to go 6/2, but English tackles made sure we were snookered. Once bitten………!!
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: More to do with the strength of the Scottish pack and replacements I’d say.
@Stanley Marsh: Scotland seem to be able to pull out the stops for the big games, so won’t be too bullish until the final whistle goes!
Lovely hurling
I’d like to see McCarthy and Beirne go the full 80 – Baid on for POM at 45 mins and Conan on for VDF or Doris at 55 (along with RK and FB and GR)
@Andrew Slazenger: beirne is can constantly ran out for 80 mins, if anything he could do with a break.
All the players from the other provinces are the reason we lost, they all should be dropped for players from my province
If Ringrose fit he should be starting ahead of Henshaw. Nothing against Henshaw, but Ringrose offers more in attack and defence
So no consequences for failing to perform?
Great message to the rest of the squad and those outside – doesn’t matter what you do or how badly those in front of you play, the team is fixed.
@teuO6nLS: sorry, not biting
@Arjuna: biting on what exactly? Poor performances should really have consequences or we’ll never build the necessary squad depth.
Compare to NZ and South Africa who drop players when they don’t perform rather than only waiting for injuries to give someone else a chance
Big opportunity for Harry Byrne , perhaps a last minute winning drop goal is on his cards ?
@Owen ODonoghue: no chance, he’ll be hiding away on the wing if we need someone to step up and get a drop goal
@Niall English: More bewildering guff. Back to your mother’s basement with you.
@Niall English: hahaha poor Harry! i’d rather have Sam P on the bench to honest
Suspect it will be a while before we see 6/2 again. Is Ross Byrne injured?
@Michael Murray: he just came back from injury he played a few games for leinster.
@Michael Murray: it wasnt the reason we lost. If Frawley was ok probably would have been used again
@Michael Murray: I would say if frawley was fit we would still go 6 -2 ,
@Michael Murray: Disagree. 6/2 is highly effective if utilised correctly (which it wasn’t last week) and if (crucially) you have a little bit of luck! The main reason we’ve never really used 6/2 before is because of questions over Sexton’s durability. Granted, he almost always lasted 80 but was a bit too risky to not have a sub fly-half.
@Michael Murray: 6/2 only makes sense when you have a coaching team willing to use the replacements early. Ours seem to be committed to no changes until after an hour at which point the advantage of the extra forward on the bench is gone