The build-up and backdrop to Chelsea’s pulsating 2-2 draw with Liverpool last Sunday was dominated by the Chelsea number nine, Romelu Lukaku – both his ill-timed interview and subsequent dropping from the matchday squad.
While the title race looks to be sadly over by January, this saga will likely rumble on into the summer.
Curse of the Chelsea Number Nine Shirt: Romelu Lukaku has Gone From Hero to Villain
Hero Return
It was thought Lukaku, the prodigal son making a £97.5 million dream return to ‘his club’, would be the one to lift the curse of the number nine shirt at Stamford Bridge.
Instead, it looks like he could be the latest induction into the hall of shame – it’s been over 17 years since The Blues have had a player worthy of the iconic shirt worn by Jimmy Greaves and Bobby Tambling, give or take a season of Hernan Crespo in the mid-noughties. Here are some of those to wear the Chelsea number nine.
Oh Jimmy, Jimmy – A Legendary Chelsea Number Nine
Leaving in 2004, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was arguably the last player to adorn the shirt and do it justice.
The Dutchman picked up a league golden boot in his first season and 87 goals in all competitions across four seasons at the club to be precise. He also was the owner of one of the fiercest strikes in Premier League history, as well as one of the largest shorts sizes.
Kezman and the Beginning of the Curse
When the Dutchman departed, his shirt number was given to a new signing, Serbian hotshot Mateja Kezman.
Kezman arrived with a stellar reputation, having top-scored the Dutch Eredivise in three of the four seasons he spent at PSV Eindhoven. He was viewed as the next Ruud van Nistelrooy, the player he had replaced at PSV and someone whose goal-scoring exploits carried over from the Netherlands.
On the contrary. Kezman’s sole season in West London was more rude than Ruud, with his record of nearly a goal per game in Eindhoven replaced with one that rivalled John Terry’s. He totalled just four league goals, not scoring until early December and even then, it came from the penalty spot. He was soon sent packing to Atletico Madrid, which would become a dumping ground of sorts for the club’s striking flops.
Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina
As alluded to, the curse was partially alleviated by Hernan Crespo on his return to the Bridge in the summer of 2005 (he had worn number 21 in the 2003/04 season before a season-long loan to AC Milan.)
Despite never truly settling in England, the Argentinian provided ten league goals to a second title-winning campaign for Jose Mourinho’s charges, sharing striking duties with Didier Drogba.
His time in the Chelsea number nine shirt would only last for 12 months as he returned to Milan in 2006, this time to Inter, who he had originally joined the Blues from in 2003.
False Nines in More Than One Sense
Having had limited success with strikers in the shirt for two seasons, the number made a positional move for the following two, bizarrely in the form of defender Khalid Boulahrouz and midfielder Steve Sidwell.
Neither made any discernible impact at Chelsea – Boulahrouz’s red card against Arsenal at the back end of the 2006/07 season delivering the title to Manchester United being about it, and both were moved on following, again, a solitary season.
Next in line for the ‘honour’ was Franco Di Santo, an Argentine like Crespo, but that might be all they ever had in common. To be fair, he was a youngster when he received the jersey and didn’t start a single league game for the 2008/09 season. He would depart on loan to Blackburn Rovers for the following season before making a reasonable career for himself at Wigan Athletic and Werder Bremen respectively.
Fernando – An ABBA Classic But Not a Chelsea Classic
The jersey remained vacant for the entirety of the 2009/10 season and up until the final day of the 2011 January transfer window.
Chelsea broke the British transfer record with the £50million signing of Fernando Torres from rivals Liverpool, who took the number nine that had become synonymous with his career.
A transfer record may have been broken, but a curse certainly wasn’t – Torres, largely due to injuries, was a shell of his devastating former self, taking a staggering 903 minutes to open his league account for the club before enduring a 24-game goal drought in the 2011/12 season.
His disappointing three-and-a-half-year spell at Chelsea, and standing in fans’ hearts, was slightly saved by his last-minute goal in the Nou Camp in 2012, which sealed Chelsea’s passage to the Champions League final.
El Nino departed after Jose’s maiden season back in charge, first on loan to AC Milan before a homecoming to Atletico, where his career ended on a high note.
Falcao Flops Again
The Chelsea number nine would then take another sabbatical, hitting the snooze button for the 2014/15 season.
From one Atletico legend to another, the next to take on the challenge was Radamal Falcao, on a second loan from Monaco to the Premier League following a difficult year at Old Trafford.
The Colombian netted on his second home game versus Crystal Palace but that would be it – still struggling to recover fully from an ACL knee injury suffered 18 months prior, he would play just ten league games, not scoring again. His signing would be a symbol of Chelsea’s season, as Mourinho flamed out spectacularly and the Blues finished in tenth place.
The 2016/17 season saw Antonio Conte at the helm and another hiatus for the shirt number.
Morata Starts Well But Soon Fades
Alvaro Morata then stepped up to the plate following a £57million move from Real Madrid in the 2017 summer – he was signed after Lukaku chose United, now managed by the not so Special One.
The Spaniard’s stint at Chelsea got off to a flier, with nine league goals in his first 14 appearances, including a hat trick at Stoke and a winner against the Red Devils.
This would be as good as it got for Morata, as only two league goals came in the remaining 17 league games he played this season. Despite winning the FA Cup, he cut a forlorn figure at the club, later speaking of not feeling the love from the fans and suffering a severe crisis of confidence.
Not even moving to the number 29 shirt for the 2018/19 season, in honour of his twin children’s birth date, could save him. New gaffer Maurizio Sarri didn’t fancy him and moved him on in January, again to Atletico.
A Naples Reunion Can’t Even Save the Shirt
Sarri handed the Chelsea number nine shirt to one of his former favourites, Gonzalo Higuain, signed on loan from Juventus to replace Morata.
Higuain looked and largely played like a Sunday League striker for his six months in West London, with just five goals in 18 appearances, and departed in the summer alongside his ex-Napoli boss.
The book of Abraham
A transfer ban for the 2019/20 season saved another big name signing from flopping in the shirt and would see a youth movement take place for the first time in Roman Abramovich’s reign.
Frank Lampard landed his dream job and entrusted multiple youngsters, namely Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori and Tammy Abraham.
Abraham was given the shirt and actually made a good stab at it for two seasons – becoming the club’s youngest Premier League hat-trick scorer and scoring 30 goals in total.
However, his role diminished when the transfer ban was lifted and an array of stars were signed. He would be deemed surplus to requirements under Lampard’s replacement Thomas Tuchel, and was sold to Roma last summer for a sum of £34million.
What Next for Lukaku?
So, back to where we started with Romelu Lukaku. It had all looked so promising – a debut goal at Arsenal and two at home to Aston Villa leaving many to believe he was the final piece in Chelsea’s title-winning jigsaw.
An injury and a bout of Covid stalled his progress, and his recent upturn has come to a shuddering halt with this controversial interview, which amounted to a love letter to an ex, Inter, expressing dissatisfaction with a current relationship.
The response to this has not gone to plan, with Chelsea obviously fuming and the Inter Ultras, who Lukaku hoped to win over again, unfurling a banner outside the San Siro saying “It doesn’t matter who runs away in the rain, it matters who stay in the storm”.
Now Lukaku must ride out the storm he’s caused at Stamford Bridge, or suffer the same fate of all those who have gone before him in the shirt.
He’s made a public apology and played the full 90 of the League Cup semi-final first-leg win over Spurs, so that’s a start.
Finally, you might be wondering what happened in the three seasons the shirt was vacant – Chelsea won the title in each of them, their three league successes in the past 15 seasons. Maybe curses aren’t reserved only for fiction.
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