Romelu Lukaku believes that Gary Neville was wrong to call him unprofessional following his acrimonious departure from Manchester United earlier this month.
The 26-year-old sealed a move to Inter Milan following a difficult season at Old Trafford and he was strongly criticised by the former United skipper after the deal had gone through.
Neville tweeted: ‘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.’
Speaking to BBC Sport, Lukaku responded to Neville’s comments by saying: ‘He 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.
‘Last year was just a bad year. It happens in football. You just have to move on. I am not going to sit here and react in a negative way.
‘We are grown men. He is a pundit. He gets paid to say this kind of stuff. I am paid to play football. I just want to do my best for Inter Milan. That is it.’
There were big expectations on Lukaku when he joined United in a £75m deal from Everton as Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s replacement in 2017 following a productive spell at Goodison Park.
The Belgium international enjoyed a promising start under Jose Mourinho, scoring 11 goals in his opening ten games, however, he struggled to maintain that early promise.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer preferred Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial in the central striker position after replacing Mourinho which paved the way for Lukaku to leave.
Despite that, Lukaku insisted he has no regrets about joining the club, saying: ‘For me, the Manchester United experience is one I am grateful for – not a good one because we didn’t win and I wanted to win with the club – but they gave me a chance.
‘I got to play for one of the biggest clubs in the world, so I will always be respectful to them. At the end, I thought it was better for me to move on and try different things.’
