After standing Lukaku down for Sunday's 2-2 Premier League draw with Liverpool, Thomas Tuchel has since held clear-the-air talks with the striker; Tuchel has also revealed Lukaku will be fined; watch Chelsea vs Tottenham live on Sky Sports Football from 7pm on Wednesday; kick-off 7.45pm
Wednesday 5 January 2022 09:08, UK
Romelu Lukaku says it is up to him to "restore trust" after making a public apology to Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel, his team-mates and the club’s supporters over his recent interview.
Tuchel confirmed on Tuesday that Lukaku is in contention to return for Chelsea in Wednesday's Carabao Cup semi-final against Tottenham, having stood down the club-record signing down for Sunday's 2-2 Premier League draw with Liverpool.
In an interview aired by Sky in Italy, Lukaku said he was not happy with the situation at Chelsea and indicated he had issues with Tuchel's style of play.
"To the fans, I'm sorry for the upset that I caused," Lukaku said in an interview with the club website.
"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 in the games, trying to make sure that we win games.
"And also to the manager, I apologise, and also to my team-mates and the board, because I think it was not the right moment also and I want to move forward from this and make sure that we start winning football games and that I perform for the team in the best manner."
Tuchel held clear-the-air talks with Lukaku on Monday, and said the striker feels responsible and determined to "clean the mess up". The Chelsea head coach confirmed his club-record £97.5m signing is back in the squad for training ahead of the visit of Spurs.
"First of all, we were even in the background happy that we took the time that it needed to look calmly on it and talk calmly," Tuchel said.
"He has apologised and is back in the squad for today's training [session] later.
"We have had enough time to clear the air and move on.
"For me, the most important thing was to understand and clearly understand and believe that it was not intentional.
"He did not do this intentionally to create noise in front of such a big game."
Tuchel praised the "close relationship" he has with the Chelsea board after smoothing over the Lukaku drama and revealed that the Belgium international will be fined for taking part in the interview.
Chelsea managers always come off worse amid disharmony with the board, but Tuchel has forged robust links with directors Petr Cech and Marina Granovskaia.
Now that hard work and cooperative spirit appears to have borne fruit, with Tuchel receiving vindication for his strong stance.
"There will be some discipline actions," said Tuchel. "Something happened, he will be fined and of course, he needs to accept it.
"It's not about I push my opinions through or the club pushes their opinions through. We are adults and we reflect the situation.
"The more the story went on, I had a clear opinion and I was happy that was OK with the club to go with it.
"We have a very open, close relationship and we can find very quick solutions, without any political interference, putting any disturbing factor aside and just looking at the isolated issue. We went from there.
"It was very nice to be a part of it. Between Petr, Marina and me, it was very calm, quick and open."
While Tuchel is happy to have Lukaku back in contention for selection, the German coach also insisted the former Inter Milan striker must now take responsibility himself to resolve the commotion.
He added: "Maybe we will have a bit of smell still from it of course. He can handle it, but he also has no other choice.
"He cannot expect everybody to be super happy the very next day.
"But he's still our player and we have good, good reasons and a lot of reasons to make him play for us, and to convince him and to fight hard that he's our player. We're happy he's our player, we will protect him."
Sky Sports News' Kaveh Solhekol on The Transfer Show:
"I don't think it was the kind of meeting where Lukaku was told off by Tuchel. Of course, Tuchel and Chelsea are unhappy about what happened, but I think the purpose of the meeting was to listen to what Lukaku had to say, hear his side of the story and take it from there.
"What is significant is that Lukaku apologised. He said that he regretted what he had done, he made a mistake and he never should have said what he did.
"And to be fair to Tuchel, he accepted that straight away. We've heard him say in the past that he doesn't have a problem with people making mistakes, as long as they put their hands up, accept responsibly and learn from them.
"That is what has happened in this case. Tuchel and Chelsea will always try and be supportive of their players and protect them. As far as Tuchel is concerned, it is over now.
"Now it is time for Lukaku to let his football do the talking and it'll be interesting to see if he's in the starting line-up against Spurs tomorrow night."
In a 29-minute interview with Sky in Italy recorded earlier in December, Lukaku said he said he was "not happy" with his situation at Chelsea, questioned Tuchel's system and revealed he turned down a move to Manchester City in 2020.
"Physically I'm doing great. I'm just not very happy with the situation, but that's normal," Lukaku said. "I think the boss has decided to play a different formation but I have to stick at it and get on with it professionally.
"I'm not happy with the situation but it's my job and I mustn't give up.
"When I was at Inter, at the end of the first year, I turned down an offer from Manchester City which was higher than Chelsea's this summer.
"So the second year after we won the Scudetto, I went to speak with club chiefs and asked for a new contract. I did it because I told myself I'm 28 years old, my family feels great in Milan, I still have my flat there, my mother and my son could come and live there and we would all feel comfortable.
"But they didn't want to extend my contract, the possibility wasn't there. It was tough for me to accept, because in my head I told myself that I would be able to do a few more years in Milan."
"In my opinion, there are three absolute top teams in football - Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Every player dreams of playing for one of these teams one day. So I thought if I ever had that possibility, I would sign a new contract with Inter and then go there.
"But it didn't happen, so I told myself that there is only one team where I could possibly see myself - Chelsea. I wasn't thinking about going there, but at one point they came in for me and so I asked [Inter boss Simone] Inzaghi to leave.
"The fact that they didn't try to make me sign a new contract bothered me a bit, it hurt me even. If Inter offered me a new contract, I would have stayed 100 per cent. That goes without saying."
Graeme Souness says Lukaku must apologise to his team-mates after the comments he made in his Sky in Italy interview led to Tuchel dropping the striker against Liverpool.
However, fellow pundit Gary Neville says an apology is not necessary if Lukaku has told the truth - but he must work hard to win back the trust of his manager and fans in what is now "rather than a love story, a transactional relationship".
Lukaku said he hoped to go back to Inter soon because he was unhappy with how Tuchel was utilising him.
Sky Sports pundit Souness described Lukaku's decision to say those things as "ridiculous and damaging" and backed Tuchel for leaving out the £97.5m forward, despite the enormity of the game.
In the end, Chelsea drew 2-2 with Liverpool - a result which only really benefits Premier League leaders Manchester City.
Paul Merson says Tuchel was wrong to drop Lukaku for Chelsea's must-win game with Liverpool, despite the striker's controversial interview.
When asked if the handling of the Lukaku situation was a victory for Tuchel, Merson said: "No, not really. Why would it be a victory?
"Chelsea had to beat Liverpool to have any chance of winning the Premier League. They had to beat Liverpool and then Manchester City in their next game to have any chance, but for me, he's chopped his nose off to spite his face.
"Lukaku is going to play for Chelsea again so why not play him against Liverpool? It's not like he's never going to play for Chelsea again. If that was the case and he's not going to play for Chelsea again, then I could understand it, but if not, why do it?
"You are better off throwing him to the wolves and playing him, in my opinion. If he then doesn't play well, the Chelsea fans will soon let him know. I'd have gone that way, personally.
"It's been far too easy for Lukaku. He's said what he wanted to say, he's been dropped, will come back for a lesser game than Liverpool and everything will be alright. Tuchel should have played him against Liverpool. It was the biggest game of the season for Chelsea."
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