What BBC journalist said about Romelu Lukaku and Alvaro Morata in July now looks awkward

GiveMeSport

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By Rob Swan

Published Mar 18, 2018

She’s currently receiving a lot of tweets about this…

It’s no secret that Romelu Lukaku was the striker Antonio Conte wanted to replace Diego Costa with at Chelsea last summer.However, the Italian coach convinced the Blues to splash out a club-record £60 million fee on Spain international Alvaro Morata instead after Lukaku decided to reunite with Jose Mourinho at Manchester United.Mourinho, too, preferred Lukaku to Morata and United subsequently signed the Belgian centre-forward in a deal worth £75 million from Everton.United and Chelsea fans spent most of the summer arguing on social media over which striker was the better player.But as we approach the closing weeks of the 2017-18 campaign, there’s no doubt which of the two forwards has performed better this season.

Lukaku is shining at Old Trafford

Lukaku took his tally to 25 goals in all competitions against Brighton and Hove Albion in the FA Cup on Saturday night. Fourteen of those goals have come in the Premier League.

His recent performances have been outstanding and Mourinho has singled the 24-year-old out for special praise over the past few days as some of his teammates flatter to deceive.

Morata is struggling at Stamford Bridge

Morata, on the other hand, has struggled during his first season at Stamford Bridge.

The 25-year-old has only managed to score 12 goals in all competitions this term - 10 of which have been registered in Premier League matches - and has been benched in some big matches in recent weeks.

He’s also lost his place in the Spanish national team, just three months before the World Cup gets underway.

What BBC journalist said last summer now looks awkward

The respective form of Lukaku and Morata has presumably come as a huge surprise to journalist Mina Rzouki, who was convinced that Chelsea had signed a far superior player last summer.

Her comments raised eyebrows at the time - and now, well, they just look incredibly awkward.

"Any day of the week if you offered me the choice between Morata and Lukaku, I wouldn't even think about it,” she said. “I would pay £20m/£30m more if I had to, and I would bring in Morata because I will always prefer an intelligent player in my team. Even if he does no score as many goals, even if he doesn’t do whatever he needs to. If he is more intelligent then he can be moulded quicker. He can do what we needs to do.

“And Morata has Champions League experience. He was second top goalscorer for Real Madrid despite not starting basically. He has done it at Juventus. He has done it at Real Madrid. He has the pace, he’s intelligent, he links up play, he can be a counter-attacking threat.

“For me, yes he doesn’t perhaps have what Lukaku has like the complete drive and everything else. But he’s young and what worries me about Lukaku is sometimes I’m not sure about his movement, if it’s that intelligent. Secondly he’s done so well so quickly so I feel it’s a bit of a Rooney where you think what if he has sort of ruined his body and how much more time does he have?”