Chris Sutton reveals why he believes Lukaku failed to live up to the hype

Chris Sutton believes Romelu Lukaku's failure at Chelsea was 'largely' down to his own doing due to a lack of fitness levels.

Lukaku is currently plying his trade back in Italian football with Roma, his second loan spell since re-joining the Blues in the summer of 2021.

His second crack at the whip at Stamford Bridge did not go to plan, with the Belgian forward leaving for Inter Milan after just one season after a falling out with ex-boss Thomas Tuchel.

However, his performance for Belgium in their 2-2 draw with England at Wembley, in which he provided a spectacular assist for Youri Tielemans' second goal, sparked debate on Mail Sport's It's All Kicking Off podcast as to why it all went wrong in west London.

'It's a bit of a head scratcher really,' said Chris Sutton speaking to co-host Ian Ladyman.

He then added: 'If you look at Lukaku through patches throughout his career he has been prolific, he has been an enormous handful - he has all the attributes.

'He goes to Chelsea [the second time] and you think "here we go", he scored in his first game, took all the plaudits away at Arsenal.

'You think this is a really important goal for him - [he] hit the ground running second time around - and then, he just fizzled out.

'I don't know if he wasn't in the best condition, in truth, maybe he let himself go a little bit, maybe he lost confidence and he wasn't the same player - hence heading back to Italy. He's done well over there and internationally.

'In many respects you could say, could [Thomas] Tuchel have got more out of him? But I do think a large part of it was down to Lukaku and not possibly looking after himself the way he should have done.'

In response, Ladyman recalled Lukaku's spell at Everton fondly, where he scored 87 goals