Romelu Lukaku hits out at Manchester United over 'leaks' of Inter transfer exit

'A lot of stuff has been said where I didn’t feel protected,' Belgian claims

Romelu Lukaku has criticised Manchester United’s handling of his departure from the club and hit out of a culture of ‘leaks’ at Old Trafford.

Lukaku, who joined Internazionale in a £73m deal a fortnight ago, was linked with a United exit all summer and did not play a part during the club’s pre-season tour.

Speaking to the LightHarted Podcast, hosted by NBA player Josh Hart, the 26-year-old claimed that speculation around his future had the effect of forcing him out of Old Trafford.

Lukaku fell out of favour following Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s arrival last December, with Marcus Rashford preferred as a central lone striker.

“A lot of stuff has been said where I didn’t feel protected,” the Belgium international revealed, on a recording made prior to his Inter move.

“I felt like [there were] a lot of rumours: “Rom going there”; “They don’t want Rom”, and nobody came out to shut it down.

“It was for a good three, four weeks. I’m waiting for someone to come out and shut it down. It didn’t happen."

In April, Lukaku's agent Federico Pastorello told Sky Sports that his client was "very open" to moving away from United.

Lukaku himself expressed a desire to move to Italy last October, prior to Solskjaer's appointment and losing his starting place.

“I had my conversation, told them it was better to go our separate ways," the Belgian added on the LightHarted Podcast. "If you don’t want to protect somebody, all these rumours come out.

“I just wanted you to say: “Rom is going to fight for his place”, but it never happened for four, five months. It was all: “He’s got to go, he doesn’t deserve to be there”. Well OK, then I want to go now.

“There is fighting for your position, but also being somewhere that people want you to be. If you’re happy, you find a way. It doesn’t matter if you’re on the bench or starting.

“But nobody told me that was the situation, so I thought for two, three weeks to analyse, see all this **** coming out in the media.

“Who leaks it? Not me. Not my agent. I see it on my phone come out of nowhere. I told them it’s not good for me to be at a place where I’m not wanted.

“We’re not stupid. They consider us dumb, but we are not dumb, we know who is doing leaks and stuff. I told them: ‘You can’t be working like this, it’s better for me to go now.’”