Farhad Moshiri has claimed that Romelu Lukaku was persuaded to leave Everton by a ‘voodoo’ message.
Lukaku joined Manchester United last summer in a deal worth £75 million but had previously been due to agree a new contract with the Blues in March.
At the time, the Belgium international’s agent Mino Raiola regularly insisted that the deal to pledge his future to Goodison Park was ‘99.9 per cent’ completed.
However Lukaku decided to turn down several Everton offers and later forced their hand by staying in Los Angeles instead of returning for pre-season training.
But Goodison chief Moshiri told the club’s General Meeting that everything was done in their power to try and convince the striker to remain on Merseyside.
He said: “With Romelu I wasted two summers trying to keep him. I spoke to him, his agent, his mother.
“We tried to offer him a better offer than Chelsea. He wanted to play for Chelsea though – at that time.
“The money that agents can get from players moving club is immense and nothing has to be disclosed.
“Bill (Kenwright) has been like a father to many players, but ultimately it’s the agents they rely on. If I tell you what we offered him, you won’t believe it, and we offered him an even better deal.
“His agent came to Finch Farm to sign the contract then Lukaku phones his mother.
“There was a pilgrimage to Africa and some sort of voodoo that says he had to sign for Chelsea – what can you do!?”
“I got close to Rom, I like the boy, he’s a good boy, and I used all my charm to keep him and I flatly failed,” added Moshiri.
“Ultimately we lost money. To buy Rom now would be £120million. The issue was his brain had gone. He was in LA (with Pogba) and he wouldn’t come back.
“It happens. Alex Ferguson got another year out of (Cristiano) Ronaldo but then he was off. (Luis) Suarez had to bite a few players to get off.”