Inter Milan forward Romelu Lukaku has finally come up with an answer to the deprecation faced from his former club Manchester United legend Gary Neville, who shamed the Belgian for being ‘overweight’ and ‘unprofessional’.
After months of speculation, the 26 year old joined the Serie A heavyweights in early August for €80 million, and also secured a five year contract at San Siro and £300,000 per week wage.
However, Neville, who is currently working as a pundit for Sky Sports, gave Lukaku a mouthful of slack via his official Twitter, in a conversation with United We Stand editor Andy Mitten.
Andy he admitted he was overweight ! He is over 100kg! He’s a Manchester United player!
He will score goals and do well at Inter Milan but unprofessionalism is contagious 😷 ! 👋
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) August 8, 2019
After almost 3 weeks, the Belgian international has replied to the criticism.
In a recent interview with BBC Sport, Lukaku hit back at Neville, saying: “Don’t question my professionalism. I live for this game. I am at home all the time. I try to do everything to improve.”
The Nerazzuri attacker targeted Neville’s words that seemingly diminished Lukaku’s reputation at Old Trafford.
“[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.”
He also mentioned that every manager he’s ever worked under has been hailing him for being a hard worker, and added that it will be the same for his favourite gaffer at San Siro.
“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 scored his first goal for Inter in the Serie A season opening, where Conte’s side thrashed Lecce 4-0.
Inter Milan are travelling to to Sardegna Arena this Monday to face Cagliari in their upcoming league fixture.