The now Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku has expressed his true feeling about how he was treated by his former club Manchester United. According to the Belgian, the club's officials "consider us dumb, but we are not."
In an interview with LightHarted Podcast per Football Italia, Lukaku said that United failed to protect him and expressed his disappointment when news about his future hit the headlines.
"Nobody told me that was the situation, so I thought for two-three weeks to analyze, see all this s--t coming out in the media. Who leaks it? Not me. Not my agent. I see it on my phone come out of nowhere," Lukaku said.
"I had my conversation, told them it was better to go our separate ways. If you don't want to protect somebody, all these rumors come out. I just wanted you to say 'Rom is going to fight for his place,' but it never happened for four, five months."
Lukaku successfully transferred to Inter Milan earlier this month on a deal for five years. He spent two seasons at Manchester United.
The Belgian star managed 27 goals across all competitions in his debut season at United, but in his second campaign, it all fell down to 15 in 45 appearances. The pecking order also saw Lukaku behind Marcus Rashford, who at 21 is considered more suited to the club by manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Things weren't going well for Lukaku at United, but he managed to impress fans with his time in Belgium on international duty. In an interview, he pointed out that the playstyle used by his national team is similar to what Man Utd is going for.
His goals for Belgium were impressive, leaving him to question why he ended up disappointing the English club and why he didn't fit in.
His time in Manchester United were also filled with criticism, and at one point he was told to delete a social media post that showed his training stats, which he only responded to when he was called lazy during pre-season.
Lukaku is now hoping he can find a place at Inter Milan and be the player Antonio Conte expects him to be. The club finished fourth in Serie A last season, so a lot is expected from their new manager.
At Inter, he was immediately given Mauro Icardi's no.9 shirt, with the club hopeful of getting rid of last season's top-scoring player.
