The 20-year-old, Romelu Lukaku surprisingly left Chelsea to join Everton on a season-long loan deal on the final day of the summer transfer window. The Belgian had confirmed his desire to stay and fight for his place in the Chelsea first-team, but ultimately decided to link up with Everton for the current campaign on a one-year loan deal.

The Blues currently have Samuel Eto’o, Fernando Torres and Demba Ba on their books as orthodox strikers, but the latter is not in Mourinho’s plans since he has rarely featured in the first-team. Ba was set to join rivals Arsenal in a loan deal this summer, but Mourinho pulled the plug on that deal since he had let Lukaku depart Stamford Bridge instead, although Ba did get the start against Norwich (due to Torres’ injury) in the Blues’ 3-1 away win and he looked good providing a constant threat.

Belgian, Lukaku made his first league start for the toffees in their 3-2 victor over Newcastle last Monday night, and it was a debut to remember for the muscular striker as he scored two and set up another in the first 45 minutes itself.

With Ba not getting a look-in under Mourinho until the Torres injury, the ‘Special One’ has been criticized for allowing the impressive Lukaku to leave on loan instead of Ba. However, Lukaku has come to the aid of his Chelsea boss and said that he knows what he is doing.

According to Sky Sports, he said, “I did not know if I would be playing for Chelsea so I asked the manager to let me leave. We spoke and I told him. It’s unfair to criticise Mourinho for letting me go because it was my decision. He knows what he is doing. He has won so many titles and I have too much respect for him to wish anything but the best.”

While previously admitting that he would like to fight for his place at Chelsea, Lukaku then decided that it would be best for his career if he got regular match time for his age.

He said, “But there comes a point where you must think about yourself to show everyone that you can shine and be one of the best strikers in the league. I could have stayed and fought, but it was not about the competition. When you are a 20-year-old you need minutes. I lost my place in the national team because I did not play for a year with Chelsea.”

“I want that position back. I want to be in a top team and play. You only get better if you play so the best thing was to leave. He’d called me into his office 10 days before the end of the window. I did not want to tell him what I wanted to do at that point, but he was very open and direct.”

He added, “I always wanted to work under him and even the time in pre-season he taught me lots I’m grateful for but I had to make a choice.”