Everton legend Kevin Ratcliffe is surprised as to why Chelsea allowed Romelu Lukaku to leave without giving him a fair chance to impress.

Chelsea snapped up Lukaku from Anderlecht as a promising teenager back in 2011 but the club decided to offload the striker to Everton a couple of seasons later for £28million without giving him the opportunities deserving to a player of such talent.

Since his move to Everton, Lukaku has managed to develop into one of the finest strikers in England and Toffees greatRatcliffe cannot fathom why Chelsea decided to get rid of such a talented player.

In his column in the Liverpool Echo, Ratcliffe stated: "Breaking the 20-goal barrier in consecutive seasons shows just how important Romelu Lukaku is to Everton but given his prolific record for the Blues you have to ask why didn't Chelsea persevere with him?

"Rom was still quite raw when he was at Stamford Bridge but it seemed obvious with him from a very early age what attributes he possessed.

"Maybe Chelsea have to operate at a level in which they don't have the time to try and develop their talents and need ready-made players for instant success but their policy of seeming mass recruitment disillusions me.

"Because of their wealth and lure of the club they sign loads of young players, many of whom never even get near to their first team. They're just snapped up, loaned out and then often sold for a profit. At least Lukaku managed to get a clutch of appearances for Chelsea but he was then farmed out.

"I'm not sure how much Everton might have paid to bring Lukaku for his initial season but the year before I think West Brom paid around £5million in a loan fee.

"So Chelsea ended up making a £10million profit plus whatever else they got for Lukaku's loan fees on a player who only turned out a handful of times for them."