MrExcalibur100

"Welcome home". Cringeworthy stuff but it's the kind of stuff you expect from them Scousers. I officially hate Lukaku now. Besides the fee, he's done nothing all for us but cause our club and most especially our fans grief with his moronic behaviour. I hope we boo the shit out of him when he comes to The Bridge.

Hate to be the one saying "I told you so" but I said on the Diego Costa wishlist thread that I won't swap him for any striker in the world right now. He's world class and what we've seen so far is only a tip of the iceberg You guys who were crying for Cavani, will you seriously swap him for Costa now?

He was one of the fastest strikers in La Liga last season. Guy's a monster when he runs through the channels.

Another game were Torres huffs and puffs and produces nothing of note despite getting 90 mins.

Pretty brilliant performance from Diego Costa again, btw.

He did win the free-kick afterall.

Now Costa's been shafted to the left while Torres of all people is playing as the striker. I guess this is just Jose testing but I'll like to see our new striker play his best position.

Vitesse are behind in their pre-season like us. Those other teams were closer to the start of their season. Olympia, the last team we faced had already started their season, so those sides are more fit.

I thought Costa was supposed to have poor technique?

Wallace is actually playing for Vitesse as well as Traore.

Unselfish play from Costa, 1-0 Salah!

The attention seeker just retweeted Stan Collymore's tweet "wishing him well at Everton".

You never cease to amaze with the stuff you come up with.

I think it's a 4-3-3 with Torres outwide, like vs Olympia 2nd half.

Most of the great business Bergenstain did was after Mancini was sacked and before Pellegrini was hired. Anyway, don't get me wrong, I like Emenalo a lot. I think he's a young, talented guy with an eye for spotting talent but he let his inexperience show with the indiscriminate signing of AM's and not adressing the ageing squad problem quicker (a problem I feel caused Ancelotti his job). It's not all his fault though as Chelsea is a mad-house. Also, he has an experienced manager in Mourinho to split hairs with as opposed to AVB and Di Matteo.

Yep, my bad, that's correct. But even if we discount those two signings, that was not the only point I made. He and his people are chiefly responsible for the unbalanced squad we had prior to Mourinho's arrival. Saying he's done a wonderful job is an over-statement. You know who did a wonderful job? Txixi Bergenstein at Man City.

In this period, we signed Torres for 50 million pounds and Luiz for 25 million pounds in one transfer window : Jan 2011 instead of adressing the fact we had an ageing squad. Everyone could see that team needed repair after Ancelotti won the double, but we squandered 75 mil pounds on signings that will turn out to be failures. We finished 3rd, Ancelotti got sacked, then the season after, AVB's season, we again didn't deal with the ageing squad issue and we finished 6th, somehow winning the CL. AVB was NOT the greatest manager, but he wasn't helped by the board. The signing of Torres still hurts us today. We then went into the 2012/13 season with only Torres as our recognized striker then signed Ba in the January transfer window, a desperation signing. That was also the season we were in 6 competitions. How a board let's it's manager start a season with only one (hopeless) striker in such circumstances, I don't know. We also let go of Miereles despite the fact we were short in midfield. Unsurprisingly, we won 1 out of 6 of those competitions, one we didn't even want to be in. We then had this wierd, sign every AM in existence binge which only made the team unbalanced. How many AM's to make Torres score? Hazard, Oscar, Marin, KDB, Benayoun, Mata. etc. Unsurprisingly, only two from that period remain. We tried to make it work with Hazard, Mata and Oscar but improved impossible to do. Benitez recognized that. Now enter Mourinho. It's only since he arrived that any semblance of sanity we had since 2010 returned. He balanced an unbalanced squad and signed players we actually needed. Matic, Schurrle, Willian, all very good signings, the first two being known recommendations of the manager. Now Diego Costa, Luis and Fabregas, other Mourinho signings. All at good prices too. Mourinho set us straight not Emenalo. He's done an ok job, nothing amazing. We've been very hit and miss in the period of 2010-2013, both with transfers and managers.

It's only a great deal if we bring in a suitable replacement. And for being a good one for Everton, I seriously hope it isn't but Lukaku's goal-scoring record in English football suggests otherwise.

Our board have made many mistakes in the last few years. More mistakes than right decisions. It's why we haven't won the league in 4 1/2 years despite spending absurd sums. I also think signing a replacement striker is a thousand times more important than signing Paul Pogba, even if that replacement isn't a world class one. We should instead trust in van Ginkel. He deserves his chance.

Of course, ideally you want a world class CF in every position, but who are those WC strikers that are available? PSG won't sell Cavani for much less than they paid for him. Also, I doubt they'll sell him at all despite the rumours. Falcao is the other option but it remains to be seen the state of him after his ACL injury.

Now that Lukaku is gone, Bony will be the perfect replacement.

Is he really an unsellable player? Why not offer to pay him out for the last two years of his contract, say pay him the rest of his wage and sell him for cheap? Or viceversa, buy himself out and agree a settlement with the club for the exact same fee? Or why not give him the Bogarde/Malouda treatment and put him in the reserves? Or make him 3rd/4th choice striker? If we really wanted to make his stay here untenable, we can do so. Anelka left, Sturridge left, Kalou left, Lukaku is leaving and this guy remains at our club? DOING WHAT exactly? How many managers and players must we lose because of his ineptitude? I have to question who makes the decisions at this football club. Mourinho has already said the guy is not a striker. WTF is he still doing here? Pay him out, take your losses and tell him to fuck off! I just hope Roman is not interfering with anything because this doesn't make sense anymore.

It's Mourinho's decision so there's amnesia to all of that. Common sense is thrown out of the window because Mourinho's a god to some here.

And where did Lavezzi spend majority of his Napoli days playing as a second striker in a 3-5-2 with Cavani. The point is that he is very good as a striker and will fit our style of play recently. There were also rumours we wanted to sign him, so that's why he is being suggested. It's amazing how Lukaku has turned to shit so quickly. Jay Rodriguez better than Lukaku?