Assistant
first-team coach Steve Holland is not expecting a decision to be made on
Romelu Lukaku’s future at Chelsea within the next two weeks.
Lukaku has been linked with a permanent move away from Stamford Bridge this
summer after spending the last two seasons out on loan at West Brom and
Everton.
He is reportedly wanted back at Goodison Park, while Bundesliga side
Wolfsburg have also been linked with a £20million bid for the Belgium
international.
The 21-year-old, who has yet to score for Chelsea since his 2011 move from
Anderlecht, is due to be assessed by Blues boss Jose Mourinho before any
decision is made about his future.
“The plan is that he will join up with us at some stage during the second
week when we are in Holland,” said Holland after Saturday’s 3-2 friendly win
over AFC Wimbledon.
When asked if he will not be leaving before then, Holland replied: “That’s
the situation as I understand it.”
Meanwhile, Holland was happy to see Marco van Ginkel feature in the win over
Wimbledon as the Dutch midfielder continues to build up his match fitness
after being sidelined since last September with a knee injury.
He added: “Marco has worked fantastically hard to come back from an awful
injury at Swindon and has had a long road back but he has done magnificently
well, well enough to be involved in the Dutch squad’s training just before
the World Cup.
“He is accumulating games and he is looking stronger every game, and it is
really important he gets a good pre-season.”
Holland continued: “It is early days for the squad. We are still using 21
players over the two halves and the second-half team did better than the
first-half team did this time, but it was still an opportunity to see a lot
of the players we don’t usually get to see at this time of year.
“The good thing about this game is that the lads kept going and showed good
spirit to recover the game.
“On Monday we get the Spanish players, Gary Cahill and Filipe Luis into the
squad and slowly it will take shape as the weeks go on.”
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