West Brom boss Clarke: Lukaku wasted first season at Chelsea

West Bromwich Albion manager Steve Clarke believes on-loan Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku's first season in the Premier League was a wasted one.

The 19-year-old joined the Stamford Bridge club in August last year, but made just eight Premier League appearances in his debut season in the division.

However, the Belgian was loaned to the midlands club earlier this summer and the powerful centre-forward made a superb start to life at the Hawthorns, coming off the bench to score with a close range header in a 3-0 home win over Liverpool.

Clarke, a former assistant at Chelsea, also joined the Baggies in the summer as he replaced new England manager Roy Hodgson, and the Scotsman believes Lukaku has the opportunity to enhance his career with West Brom after struggling to make an impression in his first season with the Blues.

"He moved for big money and there was a lot of expectation on him. It didn't quite work out for him at Chelsea last season for whatever reason," he told the Express & Star.

"One of the things he said is that he felt it was like a season wasted and he didn't learn and didn't get enough work in training.

"Hopefully here we can help to push him on again. He's obviously a talented player. We can help him to learn and as he's learning he'll be helping us as well.

"I know there was a number of clubs after him. I wasn't surprised he chose to come here.  I knew we could offer him something maybe other clubs couldn't."

Loading...

Comments on Yahoo! pages are subject to our link to Comments Guidelines. You are responsible for any content that you post. Yahoo! is not responsible or liable in any way for comments posted by its users. Yahoo! does not in any way endorse or support comments made by its users.

  • BN to face angrier Malaysians with continued crackdown, warns Ambiga The Malaysian Insider
    BN to face angrier Malaysians with continued crackdown, warns Ambiga

    KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — Putrajaya will only face more wrath from right-thinking Malaysians if it continues its nationwide crackdown on opposition supporters, Datuk Ambiga Sreenavasan said today.

  • Crackdown begins! The Malaysian Insider
    Crackdown begins!

    KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 ― Batu MP Chua Tian Chang, activist Haris Ibrahim and PAS’s Tamrin Ghafar were arrested for sedition today and brought to the Jinjang police station for questioning, according to reports.

  • Pathmanabhan, tiga pekerja ladang ke tali gantung kerana bunuh Sosilawati dan tiga individu lain Bernama

    SHAH ALAM, 23 Mei (Bernama) -- Mahkamah Tinggi di sini hari ini mendapatibekas peguam N. Pathmanabhan dan tiga pekerja ladangnya bersalah membunuhjutawan kosmetik Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya dan tiga individu lain tiga tahunlepas, dan dijatuhi hukuman gantung sampai mati. Hakim Datuk Akhtar Tahir memutuskan sedemikian selepas berpuas hati bahawapihak pembelaan gagal menimbulkan keraguan munasabah terhadap kes pendakwaan. Pathmanabhan serta tiga pekerja ladang iaitu T. Thilaiyalagan, R. Matan danR.

  • ‘Haram’ to topple government through violence, repeats Fatwa Council The Malaysian Insider

    NILAI, May 22 – The National Fatwa Council reiterated a “fatwa” declaring demonstrations and rallies to topple government through violence as “haram” (forbidden) yesterday, becoming the latest Islamic body to comment on the issue.