Steve Clarke believes Romelu Lukaku has shown a desire to improve as a player and he hopes to help the striker go from strength to strength.
West Brom boss backing Belgian to go from strength to strength
West Bromwich Albion manager Steve Clarke believes Romelu Lukaku has shown a desire to improve as a player and he hopes to help the Belgian striker go from strength to strength.
Lukaku has made an encouraging start to his loan spell at The Hawthorns after arriving from Chelsea on a season-long deal.
He had other options and could have joined Fulham, who are West Brom's opponents on Saturday, but Clarke feels it was a good choice to challenge himself further afield in the Midlands.
"I can understand him wanting to stay near his house. He has a place in Cobham - and Fulham would have been close," said Clarke.
"But he's too young to want a cosy home life. He needs to develop his career and get out there.
"It's not about how nice your house is. It's about how well you are improving as a player and that was the most important thing for Romelu.
"I promised we'd improve him. Hopefully, I can live up to that promise."
Attributes
Clarke is excited about what Lukaku, 19, could achieve in the future, and hopes he can terrorise the Fulham defence in the same way that Andy Carroll did for West Ham a couple of weeks ago.
"They (Lukaku and Carroll) are maybe not the same type of player but they are of a similar size," Clarke explained.
"I've been delighted with him so far. He's made a good contribution to a really good team start to the season.
"He's also got a lot to learn.
"I think if you take the attributes he's got and what he's shown so far he has the potential to be a really good player.
"We will try to cause the Fulham defence as much (trouble) as West Ham did but we will do it our way."
