Rapkun

My point exactly. Lukaku leaving Chelsea actually worked out for the best. He played regularly and progressed into the player he is today, The club received a very high fee for him at the time, almost enough to cover what we paid for Diego Costa who lead Chelsea to their first title since 2010. He was young and needed to play more, said so himself. I understood completely. I'm just saying that makes him no different than any non-chelsea fan. Now if you think I'm too quick to judge him. He asked to leave, he got his wish granted. Did he need to publicly criticize the club afterwards? We've had non-fan players who were more respectful to the club after they left.

Tries to prove a point>butthurt... Okay. My mistake for engaging in a debate with you.

Young striker wanted a free pass at his beloved club. and had to criticize that club publicly after leaving. Still nothing?

Or "Chelsea buy a striker every season and I wanted to be guaranteed a starting spot despite proving nothing". We all like players who are passionate but being a fan is irrelevant IMO.

I see many people use the Lukaku is a chelsea fan as an argument to defend him. How is that valid? You don't need to be a fan of the club you play for to give your all. You only need to be a professional or have a will to win. Him being a fan didn't stop him from leaving and criticizing the club for the way he was treated. What guarantees do we have that he's going to fight for the shirt more than say Azpilicueta, an Osasuna fan.

I don't think people realize how good Diego Costa actually is. Won championships in Spain and England playing for teams with low blocks but people still call him a donkey SMH. As for his lack of technique, I agree he's not the most comfortable on the ball but his link-up was unreal at times. Very few strikers in the world have the ability or the first touch to control those long balls from Fabregas and convert them into goals like he does. Made it look so easy.

Ok. Implying we did try harder and lost to a better club. We've been linked to Bakayoko since January. We've been linked to Tolisso for like what, a week? and that was only after we reportedly grew tired of the negotiations with Bakayoko. Regardless of the choice, there's clearly a pattern here. Our transfer record speak for itself. Wether it for the best or the worst remains to be seen, but nothing to be optimistic about so far.

Being realistic, Tolisso was available for the same fee as Bakayoko. We showed interest earlier in him than Bayern. They came calling and are now on the verge of signing him. Actions no fuss making it look easy. and don't tell me it's because they're a bigger club. We didn't show the same determination to try and sign him because we had another player in mind. That's the reason. Chelsea targetting players with physical presence over technical quality and productivity has a lot to do with where we are today in comparison to the big european clubs. Just look at Tottenham. They look unplayable in the league but so clueless in the champions league. I get that in order to compete domestically, we need muscles and height because of the requirements of the english game, but it's possible to find a good balance between the two. Right now it's looking like it's only one or the other.

This was Bakayoko's first season as a regular for Monaco, how is he any different to Tielemans in that regard? The only difference is that Tiemoue spent 3 seasons at Monaco under Jardim and played with much better players around him. I'm not suggesting we sign Tielemans over Bakayoko. I''m just stating Monaco made a superb business. The player I wanted is Tolisso but that train is gone.

The real winner here is Monaco who is going to make a huge profit on Bakayoko, and replaced him with a player with more potential in Tielemans for half the fee.

Normally, I would agree. but in this case Chelsea just enquired about Tolisso in a meeting held by another team to sign one of our players. It happens that clubs ask about multiple players during meetings. It was probably just an attempt to have a plan B in place in case the Bakayoko deal fell through, or a negotiation tactic to show that they're interested in other players. I'm pretty certain Bakayoko was the number 1 target all long and that's a real shame. Tolisso is very versatile, a great athlete, scores loads of goals, decent passer, brings a lot of energy in the game. Timeoue is very different.

Morata would have been the perfect Diego replacement IMO, at least like for like. His profile is more similar to Costa's than Lukaku's is. A lone striker who can be involved both in the build-up play and at the finishing. Decent back to goal and can still make things happen even when we don't have much of the ball. Also can press tirelessly all game. The only explanation I can come up with is Conte doesn't see Morata as a lone striker and was only interested in signing him back when he wanted to use his favorite 424. Maybe he thinks Romelu is more adept to play alone upfront or simply he's looking for a different profile to work with. There's also the fact that he's homegrown but it shouldn't be a decision criteria.

What was reported is: Chelsea grows tired of negotiations with Bakayoko because of a big number of intermediaries. A meeting with Lyon's president and chelsea's representatives is held. Meeting probably happened at the request of Lyon who are interested in Traore (Lacazette potential replacement). During the meeting Chelsea asks about Tolisso and Lyon expresses an interest in Zouma. There was no further details about Tolisso but it was said Zouma would not make a decision about his future yet. According to reports thats all Chelsea did, ask about Tolisso's situation.

He's the same source that started the Chelsea interest in Tolisso in the first place. All he says is that Tolisso wants Bayern now and has agreed personal terms with them. All that's left is for both clubs to find an agreement and Bayern is trying to close the deal as soon as possible.

Some of their stories are not always accurate but Bilel Ghazi is very reliable especially when it comes to Lyon.

Same source said Ancelotti called him personally to get him to join. I'm not quite sure we put the same effort in trying to sign him unfortunately.

All Lukaku has over Morata is his goalscoring record and thats mainly due to the fact he has been playing regularly since going to Everton, Morata is more than just goals. l'equipe reported that chelsea got fed up with the intermediaries during the negotations and that they asked about Tolisso during a meeting with Lyon's president. A day later, their president admits there has been a meeting with chelsea representatives and mutual interest in players from both sides which if you read the article on l'equipe (from a pretty reliable journo) is pretty accurate and went on to name the players in question (Traore, Zouma, Tolisso). The story about the intermediaries with Bakayoko is also accurate. His brother is his agent. There was a documentary about Bakayoko in a french tv show and it had bits about his brother and he came across as very stupid person. Word is him and his friends are trying to get a cut being involved in the transaction. Teams always have a list of targets for every positions they want to strenghten and it's very clear Bakayoko was the top priority in midfield, probably still is. I don't even need to plea the Lukaku vs Morata case since we're getting closer to signing Lukaku. Media are not always reliable and/or accurate but they give you a pretty good idea of the situation IMO.

Seeing Morata play just now makes me so sad that we have to go after Lukaku while the former is available and so much more talented. There really is something wrong with the chelsea board when Lukaku and Bakayoko are first options and Morata Tolisso are second...

Playing a high-line with Cahill and Ivanovic is asking to get spanked.

Replacement for Mustafi I fear.

Abdennour on loan is the best choice available IMO. I'm not even sure it can be done so late in the window though.

On twitter some people are saying that it's not him running the account but rather a community manager. According to them his brother said it in an interview and he only tweets sometimes. Talk is that chelsea is unhappy with the guy who manages his account and asked him to desactivate it until he gets someone else. Edit: his brother just posted on twitter saying he did not desactivate the account. Said he has copyright issues with some videos he posted and that its going to get fixed soon.

Jese to PSG for 25m euros apparentely. That's a steal especially if no buy-back clause included. Meanwhile we're looking at Lukaku for 80m...

It's actually fine if there's a buy-back clause included. The club gets money to balance the books and the player can focus on his new club and developpement. Buy-back clause does not guarantee the player will return but it guarantees that the other club will not resist the sale. Besides, not too long ago the player himself said playing as a regular for Chelsea would be a dream.

Last time I stayed up so late to watch the chels was last pre season's game against red bull... terrible terrible memories. a win today and some good displays could definitely help erase some of that from my brain.