“OK, I’m going to Manchester” - How Mourinho signed Lukaku
With everybody expecting Lukaku to return to his former club Chelsea, Mourinho turned the tables and convinced the £75m man to join him at United.
Whilst on holiday with friends in Los Angeles, Romelu Lukaku received a call from an old friend that would ultimately change his life.
‘It was Jose Mourinho,’ grins Lukaku’s childhood friend Vinnie Frans. ‘It was the final week of June and we were in New York. He was on the phone saying “Yes, boss”, “OK, boss” so I knew it was Mourinho.’
However, the first phone call was not enough to initially convince Lukaku that Manchester was the right option for him. It took a total of three different contract offers from United to to persuad the Belgian and eventually replace the hole left in attack by Wayne Rooney and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Frans went on to say, ‘as a child, it was all about Didier Drogba. When he scored goals on the street, it was the Drogba celebration with the arms. But he just had one call from Antonio Conte. Manchester United came with three different contract offers and Chelsea did not present one. United wanted him more and that’s the reason he chose them. Rom had it clear that he wanted to start pre-season properly with a new team. Chelsea kept waiting and waiting so he thought “United have come with a good offer, Mourinho has great ideas and he was 100 per cent sure Mourinho wanted him”.
‘At first he was like “Let me wait a bit and see what other clubs are doing”. But United wouldn’t take no for an answer. After the second offer he thought “Hmmm, they really want me”. Then it was a third time and it was “Hmmm with a few “M’s” then the fourth came and it was “OK, I’m going to Manchester”. Pogba was talking up United but it was always going to Romelu’s own decision.’
‘In LA, Jose called him up again and said “Have you made a decision?” He said “Boss, I’m coming to United”.
Lukaku beleives Mourinho is one of the best coaches in the world and insists there is no bad blood bewteen the two after the then Chelsea manager, sold him to Everton in 2014.
Frans said, ‘If he really wanted revenge on Mourinho, he’d go to Chelsea. It’s not only the manager who sends you away, it’s the whole club. He always said to me “Vinnie, Mourinho is one of the best coaches in the world, I really want to work with Mourinho”.