LAM09

The deal is looking even worse, if that's true.

Thought the board might have learnt from past mistakes. Had hoped the Thorgan deal would a the first of many to include one.

Hope there's a buy-back clause. We have to be covering our tracks when selling youngsters.

£40m for him would be unbelievable business

Looking more and more likely that this deal will go over the line.

It would be understandable if there were currently only two/three teams better than what this league has to offer, but there are arguably 6-8 teams right now. The only thing this league has going for it compared to the rest is, the number of top managers. Lets hope they can work their magic and make English teams a force again like the mid 2000's.

Juve in the CL final two out of three years aren't relevant or are you just picking the 3 to suit you? Please get a grip The supposed point you're to trying to make has no relevance to someone excelling, and judging one player to another to try & justify it doesn't work either. Might as well just go for basketball/rugby players, so they can cope with the extreme physical demands. Also, who said I'm Egyptian? Some people just don't get it and are stuck in some mindset that English teams conquer all because EPL is head & shoulders above the rest. How's that doing for English teams in the CL?

The defending is Italy is better than here for starters, a player's ability to score goals in Europe & domestically has nothing to do with someone's stature. His numbers are obviously inflated slightly to do lesser quality, but that wont have any affect on his return to the league. Silva, Hazard, Mata to name a few, haven't been dominated. This constant fixation on leagues being weaker or inferior to suit someone's weightless point needs to stop. We're discussing a top five league and not the CSL or Jupiler league.

Belotti would be that presence for me, but you haven't seen him enough. RM will drop Morata the moment they sign a big name CF, which they've been after a while (Aguero, Lewy or Mbappe).

You've mentioned the reasons why Lukaku might not be at the top. The only thing he has over our other targets is his stature. Doesn't currently excel/standout in any other field.

We never will. I don't see Lukaku being his top target, but he's probably the easiest to obtain.

People wouldn't be so against this signing, if Everton were not after £60m+ and better targets (Belotti, Aub, Morata to an extent) being available.

Nothing is comparable to the Prem. [emoji42]

We all know why Stones, Sterling cost as much as they did. I seriously don't believe he's improved massively from his Celtic days to justify such a fee and he isn't HG. I'd much prefer us to spend half of that on someone like Laporte. Technically superior, younger and has more potential. We don't have to give in to such demands when we aren't desperate. No clubs outside of England will even look twice at VVD for that price.

They went for one of the most sort after players in Europe. Paying big bucks for Sandro is one thing, but when on earth did VVD fall under that bracket? In addition, Everton are spending Lukaku's incoming payment early and Liverpool spent around £70m combined for Mane & Salah (not crazy IMO).

An injury free campaign and he'll be the highest scoring winger in the coming season.

Please be nonsense. Where is the value nowadays?!

There has to be a line, though. Juve demand €90m next?

I can't think of any examples where I've written players off before they've even joined or been against someone from the get go (this being the exception). To say he will come back and bang them in is wishful thinking to say the least. Nothing short sighted about my opinion on him. Age is on is side and blah blah. I'm sticking to my original thought; he's the worse CF we've been linked with so far out of the main targets. @Chelsea Legend 11

Highly unlikely, but that's a move I could get behind. Going to be a sad day when all these rumours die down and Lukaku is announced. [emoji26]

Traore really has no place here for me. We would be buying him in the hope he adds end product, which wasn't present at Barca or Middlesbrough. Don't want another "project".

The reported figure seems to be getting bigger by the day. €50-70m is going overboard IMO.

For me that's cheap going by the prices going around and his number since leaving us. Top scorer for Roma in 15/16, directly involved in 34 goals last season for Roma (putting aside his numbers for the NT too) and among the top 5 chance creators in Europe. I can't for the life of me believe he will only cost that much and there's talk of Lukaku for £60m+.

£2.7m from £39m+ is something, I guess.

Ofcourse not. Sold him for peanuts and Roma more than doubled their money in less than two years.