When he was hired in the summer of 2016, Jose Mourinho was viewed as the manager who would finally return Manchester United to their heyday under Sir Alex Ferguson.

The Old Trafford faithful were undoubtedly optimistic about the future after his promising debut season in which he won three trophies and enjoyed success with Chelsea, Inter Milan, and Real Madrid, winning league titles at each club.

It didn’t exactly turn out that way though, as the individual was fired from the club in December 2018 after failing to bring home another trophy. Alexis Sanchez, Paul Pogba, and Fred are among a long list of his high-profile failures who fell short of their potential.

Romelu Lukaku, whom the Red Devils paid £75 million to acquire from Everton in 2017, was perhaps his biggest gaffe in the transfer market. They were counting on the Belgian striker to help them win another Premier League championship.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made the proper decision to trade him in 2019, especially considering how poorly his worth performed during his two-year stint.

What is Romelu Lukaku currently worth?

The former Chelsea striker had a respectable debut season at United, netting 27 goals across all competitions. However, while he did his part, his colleagues fell short of challenging Manchester City for the league title.

A journalist named Samuel Luckhurst even criticized the striker, calling his finishing “woeful” and “costly,” and noting that it was obvious he hadn’t fully lived up to the high expectations during his tenure at the club. His second term was considerably more difficult, with just 15 goals in 45 games.

It was obvious that United couldn’t pass up the opportunity to move him from Manchester to Serie A when Inter Milan made them an offer of £74 million, especially after his disappointing second season.

That decision has proven to be one of the best the club has made in the years afterwards, as Lukaku has seen both his form and valuation decline significantly.

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He did contribute 24 goals to Inter’s league total when they won the Scudetto in 2020–2021, but since then, he has only netted 21 goals for Chelsea (who he joined in 2021) and Inter once more while on loan.

The 29-year-old is only valued at €46.5 million (£41 million) by Football Transfers, and if his current form continues, this will only go down. This shows that United made a complete error by selling Lukaku at the time they did.