AFTER two seasons at Old Trafford, Romelu Lukaku wants to leave Manchester United. The striker is unlikely to make any public statements about wanting to go like Paul Pogba did. He doesn’t need to.

he Belgian sits on a lucrative contract which his new agent knows will be hard to match, let alone beat. The agent has better contacts in Italy than any other country and Internazionale, managed by Lukaku admirer Antonio Conte, are among the suitors. They’d need to sell one of their leading strikers, probably Mauro Icardi, to fund it. Inter have spoken to the agents and indicated what they are willing to pay.

Lukaku wants to play football and has told the club this in post-season meetings. He fears that he won’t be a regular starter next season. He’s prepared to fight for his place, but not if he’s out of the manager’s plans. 

Inter Milan need to offload Mauro Icardi first to have any chance of financing a deal for Romelu Lukaku. They hope to raise £60m by selling Icardi. #mufc [Fabrizio Romano]

— United Xtra (@utdxtra) June 21, 2019

After a good first season at United where he scored 27 goals, he lost his place in the second to Marcus Rashford. Lukaku can’t complain that he didn’t receive opportunities since Jose Mourinho persisted with him long after many fans inside Old Trafford had tired of his lack of movement, runs, goals and a first touch which one fanzine writer described as being ‘like a trampoline’. Lukaku’s body language showed a man not enjoying his football, though he did hint that he felt he wasn’t receiving the required service. He had a point.

Yet last season's 15 goals in 45 games simply isn't good enough when you play centre forward for Manchester United. Only two of those goals, both scored on that magical night in Paris that seems light years away from where United are now, were against a top team. He hasn’t scored since that game on March 6.

The goals come in spurts too. He scored four in four starts at the beginning of the season but then went from mid-September to December without a goal. Mourinho had tried to protect him but ran out of excuses. His leading striker, the one he purred over when he signed, was failing badly.

Marcus Rashford took his place and kept it when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer arrived. Lukaku, 26, did get his chance and scored a couple at Crystal Palace, which led to the away end singing his name, but that didn't alter his overall failure. And, for £75 million – a fee inflated by his status as a proven goalscorer which United needed – fans expected more. Lukaku was actually set on Chelsea that summer, but the money United offered, some £225,000 a week, turned his head and that of his agent Mino Raiola.

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is desperate to see Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku sold in order to boost his transfer funds this summer. [Daily Star] pic.twitter.com/hJukFo5FRb

— Transfer News (@TransfersLlVE) June 21, 2019

Those wages will fall by £40,000 since United are not playing Champions League football next season, a decrease which makes him slightly more affordable, but the key for United is getting a sizeable fee for him. Given Lukaku is a proven goalscorer for club and country there is a demand for him. There are other secondary factors too. Belgium manager Roberto Martinez wants the country’s all-time leading goalscorer to be playing regular football.    

United fans won't be too disheartened if he leaves, especially if the club can recoup – as they hope to – the money they paid Everton in 2016. He’s not a hero. He’s had his moments, but his stock has fallen with the rest of the squad. The dreadful form at the end of the season has contributed to the current horrendous mood among fans. There are few players that United fans would be that bothered to lose.

As the front cover of the summer United We Stand fanzine states ‘No More Heroes’. It has been a long time since Manchester United fans had those sentiments. The mood can change quickly as it did when Solskjaer arrived, but Lukaku might not be around to experience it. 

Two goals in two games in the #CopaAmerica @Alexis_Sanchez is finding his feet pic.twitter.com/0G3ZGq6vya

— B/R Football (@brfootball) June 22, 2019

Lukaku leaving also offers the eternal morale boost of signing a new centre forward. If Alexis Sanchez is not going to play as a central striker – don’t laugh – then United will need a forward unless the club feel that the excellent youth striker Mason Greenwood is ready to play for the first team.

There are conflicting opinions about that among the coaches, though all see him as the most exciting prospect to come from the youth system since Rashford. Anthony Martial is another player who United’s coaches think could have a future in a central role – sharing the view held at his former club Monaco.

Rashford’s own position is not clear either. United won’t entertain the idea of selling the Mancunian, but his form, like the rest of his teammates, has dropped off a cliff. Lukaku has a far better goalscoring rate than Rashford, though Rashford was played out of his preferred central role more.

United are under no pressure to sell the Belgian. If big money is offered then it will be considered, but his departure certainly wouldn’t create the emotive or divisive outburst if Paul Pogba was sold. Sadly, Romelu Lukaku has become a bit ‘meh’ for the club it was hoped he’d ignite.