Former Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku has responded in defiant fashion to criticism from Gary Neville following the forward's testing time at Old Trafford.
Neville accused the Belgian hitman of lacking professionalism during his two-year spell at United, whilst also calling him overweight on Twitter. His Red Devils nightmare was brought to an end earlier in August when he completed a £74m move to Inter, Lukaku scoring on his debut as the Nerazzurri thrashed Lecce 4-0 in their opening game.
In an interview with BBC covering multiple issues, the 26-year-old stated: "[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. [Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said] 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. 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. That is it."
Questioned about why his United career fell flat, Lukaku said: "I don't know. I don't try to look back at it. Ole was not the right manager for me. [We] tried to work together, but at one point I had to be honest with him.
"We found an agreement. I wanted to go. He understood why I wanted to go. It is something I will always be grateful to him for. We had a conversation man to man. I told him how I felt and he understood."
Source :
90min
