Romelu Lukaku’s loan spell at The Hawthorns was a turning point in his career
A recently-coined phrase amongst football supporters is that you should “never fall in love with a loan player,” and those of a West Bromwich Albion persuasion certainly know about that more than most clubs in recent years.
Future England international, Harvey Barnes and Championship goalscoring supremo, Dwight Gayle, are two key examples which come to mind, but they still are not held in the same regard at The Hawthorns as Belgian attacking icon, Romelu Lukaku.
The experienced forward’s career path has certainly been one of immense intrigue at both club and international level, featuring in a star-studded ‘Red Devils’ lineup that has been coined as the nation’s ‘golden generation’, as well as plying his trade for some of European football’s most historic and successful sides.
However, it is fair to say that such a remarkable set of circumstances may not have come to fruition for the striker had he not flourished in Steve Clarke’s side over a decade ago in B71, in what was just Albion’s third season back in the Premier League after regaining their top-flight status under another former Chelsea man, Roberto Di Matteo, back in the summer of 2010.
Romelu Lukaku’s finest breakthrough came in a West Bromwich Albion shirt back in 2012/13
Prior to his maiden move to English football at Stamford Bridge, Lukaku was already highly-rated in his native Belgium, breaking through the K.Lierse SK academy setup and eventually being poached by Pro League giants, Anderlecht, at just 13 years of age.
Five years later, Lukaku managed to attract the attention of the West London outfit after scoring 41 times in just 98 games for the Brussels club, with Chelsea agreeing a minimal €20m investment in his services.
Although he wouldn’t become an immediate part of the first-team fold for the Blues, they would allow one of their Premier League rivals to benefit from the Belgian’s raw goalscoring prowess, with the Baggies able to agree a season-long loan in 2012 after competition from Fulham.
Described as “powerful, strong, enthusiastic and eager to learn,” by Clarke, the forward certainly vindicated those words in the West Midlands, setting the tone for what was to come with a debut goal in a 3-0 win over Liverpool at The Hawthorns.
However, the majority of his goals would remarkably come after the turn of 2013, having only scored six times and produced one assist in the first half of the campaign.
A key reason behind 11 further goals was, indeed, his first instances of netting more than one goal in an English top-flight encounter, with braces coming against Reading and Sunderland, as well as a memorable hat-trick against Manchester United on the final day of the campaign, with Sir Alex Ferguson’s final game in management being a 5-5 draw in B71.
Chelsea would benefit from Romelu Lukaku’s loan spell despite mixed financial circumstances
Ultimately, in a roundabout way, Chelseaas well as Lukaku, would benefit massively from his loan spell in the Midlands.
Although Albion were fortunate to retain his services for the second half of the 2012/13 campaign, the powerful forward would make a second top-flight loan move to Everton, with a tally of 15 goals in 33 league outings for the fifth-placed finishers in 2013/14, seeing the Toffees part with a club-record £28m to sign him permanently.
After netting 87 times in 166 games at Goodison Park, Manchester United would pay their North West counterparts a £75m figure in the summer of 2017, but Lukaku’s time at Old Trafford was certainly one of mixed fortunes, before a run of 64 goals in 95 appearances at Inter Milan.
With Chelsea coming off the back of a second UEFA Champions League success under Thomas Tuchel in 2021, the Belgian returned to SW6 for an eye-watering £97.5m sum.
The mixed fortunes of Lukaku’s overall career have since been further reflected by the fact that Chelsea made a loss of over £60m on his services despite a 15-goal season in 2021/22, as Napoli paid £30m for his signature in 2024 after two previous Serie A loans with Inter and Roma.
But, despite this, Lukaku has still won a multitude of awards at club and individual level, as well as Belgium’s all-time leading goalscorer, and he can certainly credit Albion massively for the part they played in his development many years ago.
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