Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku has been named the worst Premier League signing of the season in the 2021-22 Sports Mole Readers' Awards.
Lukaku returned to Stamford Bridge in a high-profile £97.5m deal last summer, having re-established himself as one of the best strikers in Europe during a successful spell with Inter Milan.
However, the first season of his second stint at Chelsea did not go to plan, with the Belgian starting only 16 Premier League games and scoring just eight goals in 26 top-flight appearances overall.
Lukaku fell out of favour with manager Thomas Tuchel at various stages of the campaign, and also made headlines off the field with comments suggesting that he wanted to return to Inter Milan.
The 29-year-old was voted by 27.8% of our readers as the worst Premier League signing of the season, fending off some other big-name players in the most competitive category of the awards.
Saul Niguez, who only joined Chelsea on loan but quickly fell down the pecking order and made only five league starts, made it an unwanted one-two for the Blues by coming in second place with 25.1% of the votes.
Manchester City's Jack Grealish garnered 21.9% to finish in third place, with his big-money price tag of over £100m and return of three goals and three assists overshadowing the fact that he ended the season with a Premier League winners' medal.
Jadon Sancho, who arrived at Manchester United to much fanfare after a lengthy transfer saga, rounded off the top four with 15% of the votes having only started 20 league games.
Barney Corkhill
