Five Chelsea targets who could replace Diego Costa

Romelu Lukaku – Andre Carlisle

Romelu Lukaku was loaned to Everton ahead of the 2013/14 season. Diego Costa was brought to London ahead of the 2014/15 season. Since Diego’s arrival, Lukaku has outscored him in English competitions – while on a consistently worse team (when Chelsea finished 10th, Everton were 11th) – 61 goals to 52.

Sure, every iteration of Everton has relied on the big forward putting the ball in the net while Chelsea have a host of attacking talent. But the jobs of the respective strikers – and the competition both have faced – are equal enough for a nearly scientific conclusion: Lukaku can replace the production of Diego Costa.

Football is never that simple, though, and you can’t say with any reasonable certainty that names like Dybala and Andrea Belotti couldn’t fall within that range of production. So let’s dig deeper.

For lack of a better term, Lukaku was the one that got away. He cherished Chelsea and idolized Didier Drogba, and the club made the dream real when he was signed and earmarked to fill the boots of a revered but aging icon. Then reality set in and the manager – as well as the fans – railed against the imbalanced relationship and the teenager was sent away. First temporarily, then permanently.

It’s the curse of a dream come true. If there’s no slow fade to closing credits, eventually, you have to climb down off the dinosaur. Then what?

There has to be more and in rejecting the opportunity to become Everton’s highest paid player ever, Lukaku added ambition to the dream. In addition to knowing how good he is, he’s acutely aware of the glory his talent deserves – record wage bill be damned.

Lukaku responded to the cruelty of reality. The shiny-eyed boy wonder is now a steely-eyed Premier League phenom and the path now feels more right.