“Would work for fun” – Mark Lawrenson claims unlikely swap deal between Chelsea and Tottenham could make sense

Former Liverpool defender Mark Lawrenson has claimed in an interview with Off The Ball that a swap deal involving Chelsea’s Romelu Lukaku and Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane would work out for both clubs.

Romelu Lukaku moved to Chelsea after two prolific seasons with Inter Milan. The Belgian scored 64 times and had 17 assists in 95 appearances across competitions for the Nerazurri.

However, he has failed to recreate the same kind of form for the Blues and has scored 6 goals in 26 appearances thus far. Lukaku finished with just seven touches in the recent PL victory against Crystal Palace despite playing the entire 90 and hasn’t been on the same wavelength as his teammates.

Harry Kane, on the other hand, famously wanted to leave the Spurs in the summer and was reportedly close to joining Manchester City. The 28-year-old scored two goals, including a stoppage-time winner, against City recently but has netted only seven times in 22 EPL appearances this term.

Lawrenson claimed that the two strikers should swap teams, but confessed that it was a difficult move to pull off:

“I said about Lukaku and Kane, what about this swap in the summer. Lukaku goes to Tottenham to play with Conte again. And Kane goes to Chelsea. I don’t think it will ever happen because they hate each other, don’t they?! But I was just looking at the way that the two strikers were playing.”

He added:

“Before Saturday, Kane had been struggling. We could say the same thing about him ‘was he thinking about last summer?’ How he didn’t go to Man City. And is he thinking about the summer coming up where he could leave?” The swap for the two would work for fun. But I think Lukaku will be gone in the summer and Chelsea will re-invest.”

Romelu Lukaku set to leave Chelsea for the second time in his career?

Lawrenson claimed that Thomas Tuchel will be looking to sell Lukaku and buy another striker in the coming summer. Lukaku’s career trajectory has been a topsy-turvy one so far. He joined Everton in July 2014 and scored 86 goals for the club, whilst also making 27 assists in 164 appearances across competitions.

This earned him a move to Manchester United, where he scored 42 times in 96 games but was criticized for his poor first touch and passing abilities on a consistent basis. At Inter Milan, just like at Everton, Lukaku was the focal point of the attack with multiple creative passers regularly looking for his runs.

The Belgian’s strength and finishing ability are world class. However, succeeding in a high-intensity attacking game where he is also expected to hold up the ball and be more technical consistently has proved difficult. That has been the most obvious problem at Chelsea thus far as well.

Thomas Tuchel himself claimed that the Belgian was out of the game against Crystal Palace and that he was unsure how to help the striker. Presently, all signs point to yet another permanent move for Romelu Lukaku in the summer.