So, a week after a Belgian paper claimed that Chelsea were about to sign Romelu Lukaku, news comes pouring in from the British media that the Blues have lodged a bid with Anderlecht for the now-18-year-old striker. This isn't much of a surprise, and unlike, say, rumours about Chelsea and Javier Pastore, I don't think they're likely to just be one side blowing smoke. Chelsea want Lukaku, and while you could make the argument that they don't need him right now, that's not really the point - he'll be a English homegrown player in three years time if he's signed this summer, and that's worth picking him up even without an obvious spot on the team for him just yet.
Lukaku might be good enough to start a centre forward for most teams in the Premier League right now, but he's almost certainly not good enough to compete with Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba for a place in Chelsea's first-choice lineup. He doesn't offer the same sort of versatility that Daniel Sturrdge does, either. So, the pursuit of Lukaku is not a move for right now, and shouldn't have much of an impact on the first team.
Should Chelsea end up spending the cash to bring Lukaku in, the most sensible thing to do would be to let him stay at Anderlecht on loan for a little while before then loaning him out to a Europa-League-quality team in, say, the Bundesliga - a place where he can develop the technical qualities that he hasn't had to work on due to absolutely overpowering everyone who plays in Belgium.
As long as the price is reasonable (it's being quoted as anywhere from between £10M and £18M today, so it's difficult to believe that anyone actually has the number), I think this would be a superb investment for Chelsea's future. Lukaku has every chance to develop into a star player, and the fact that we can snap him up now so as to make him a home grown player for the rest of his career is intensely appealing. Hopefully the Blues can get this done.
PS: The fact that I don't have any legal pictures of Lukaku is really annoying.