After Gary Neville’s criticism of Inter Milan player Romelu Lukaku, the latter has broken his silence on the issue. Lukaku has hit back at Gary Neville for calling him unprofessional.
The former striker of teams like Chelsea and Everton netted as many as 27 goals in his debut season with United but his performances dipped in the previous season and there were concerns over his fitness and conditioning.
Notably, Neville had written, “unprofessionalism is contagious” in a social media post referring to Romelu Lukaku. However, Lukaku has defended himself and said that he is a hard-worker.
“Don’t question my professionalism,” Lukaku told the BBC.
“I live for this game. I am at home all the time. I try to do everything to improve.
“[Neville] can talk about my fitness but he should never say anything about my professionalism, that I don’t work hard enough. That is something he cannot say. All the coaches I have had say the same thing about me.
“What did Ole Gunnar Solskjaer say when I was on the training ground? What did he say? That I always work hard and always do my best to try and improve myself.
“Same with Jose Mourinho and Roberto Martinez. Now Antonio Conte will say it.”
Lukaku confessed in the interview that it was indeed a “bad year” for him but he has no regrets and still maintains a healthy relationship with manager Solskjaer despite parting ways with Manchester United.
“Me and Ole tried to work together but at one point I had to be honest with him. He was also honest with me,” the 26-year-old Belgian International said.
“We found an agreement. I wanted to go. He understood why I wanted to go.
“It is something I will always be grateful to him for. We had a conversation man to man. I told him how I felt and he understood.
“He will always get massive respect from me and massive protection,” he concluded.