The Skipper

My point was that midfield competition at City is just as tough as at ours. He won't really be playing more football over there than here.

We're not discussing his move to NYCFC, we're discussing his loan move to Man City... Everyone knows and accepts why Frank left but to say he wasn't offered a contract is false. I'm not so certain he 'has' to go on loan to City either.

How much football will he actually play though? City's midfield is stacked. Toure, Fernandinho, Fernando, Javi Garcia, Jack Rodwell and even Milner could all be ahead of him.

He does look in good shape this time around, last year he came back a bit chubby. I also expect him to play 30-45 mins, as you said.

Why would Jose lie about offering players contracts......

Not true, numerous reports and Mourinho himself said that we did offer him (and Ash) a new contract.

To be honest, Term has a right to be questioning all this - I mean sure Lamps is the biggest legend, but surely he must've thought about his comments just 12 months ago when he said that he wouldn't play for any PL club? It just seems very odd. For me it won't tarnish his legacy but that doesn't mean I'm happy with it... Mourinho did say Frank is welcome back whenever - a 6 month loan to help support the squad and keep his fitness up here is surely better than the City option? Our league rivals? We have space for him in our squad as well, it's not like he'll take up a foreign spot. I'm trying to see it from Frank's perspective and he probably thinks they'll offer him more playing time (which isn't even true IMO - I think we'd offer similar minutes to them), but is it worth it? Is it worth seeing the majority of CFC fans unhappy (you have to be kidden yourself if you're happy about it) and being taunted by Man City fans (they will definitely taunt us) just for the sake of a 6 month loan spell that he'd probably get here as well? I don't know... It's a shame because I thought Lamps is the biggest legend here, even more so than JT, but this does make me question that slightly. Is he more of a legend than JT for me if this goes through? Maybe not anymore, but he'd certainly still be up there obviously. I mean, even Drogba and Ashley sidestepped the PL for our sakes. It's a real odd one. Not going to lie, I would be a lot happier if this didn't go through...

Meh. Disappointed but I doubt he'll even play tbh. He should've just come here on loan for 6 months tbh... We do need HG players...

If the kid goes to Atletico and puts his head down and works hard it would be a superb signing.

Brilliant read SJ, more like these from you please.

Weckerz is one of the Belgian members that doesn't really have clear bias over Belgian players actually.

Chalobah definitely, so can Baker. Chalobah would be the perfect Matic understudy, and Baker the perfect Fabregas understudy.

Even if we do manage to sell Torres, I really can't see the club spending £40/£50m on someone that won't even have a starting spot guaranteed.

That's not true, because Lukaku played in the 3 out of 4 matches that he was here for before he went out on loan. So, if we're basing it on that, which is far more relevant than basing it on the Torres/Sturridge situation; because as I said, that was different - RDM didn't have the power that Jose had and the board obviously forced RDM to play Torres at all costs - something that Mourinho wasn't required to do; you can see that he actually had a decent chance (much better than Sturridge did anyway) to break through here last season and play a significant role. That's why I say you can't compare the Sturridge and Lukaku situation and use that as a pointer that Lukaku wouldn't have got game time here under Mourinho; because based out of the small sample we did get to witness - he actually did.

I'm not even mad about Romelu asking for a loan, if you go back to this thread you'll see I actually supported his request, I saw why he wanted to go out on loan, so whatever you're saying in that regards is null and void. It's all the other stuff that he's been saying and doing in the build up to this season. If Robben did the same thing I'd be saying the same thing. Actually, I blasted Robben for wanting to leave CFC when he was here to begin with. I call it how I see it, regardless of nationality. Interesting to see that your defence on Lukaku is based on the fact that he's Belgian though. Means you wouldn't give him the benefit of the doubt if he wasn't right?

It really isn't the same. Sturridge definitely wasn't given a fair run, especially considering he was definitely the striker behind Torres for 6 months and barely got any game time even though Torres was flopping. Same can't be said about Romelu... Romelu ran away without even trying to fight. Sturridge tried his best but was held back by the ridiculous Torres situation.

Now Mourinho is lying and is twisting the words and the situation - even though people have their own eyes and thoughts and were pretty much saying exactly what Mourinho was saying for weeks before he came out and said it; and Lukaku has done nothing wrong at all apparently. Incredible what Lukaku apologists will say to protect their little, angelic boy, really is.

Lukaku has been basically saying the same thing for a long time now, but people will dismiss hard quotes from him and Jose as "shitty rumours". It's hilarious.

You wake up. It's not even something new that's been discussed, people have been saying this for a long time, Jose pretty much came out and confirmed it. It's a fact that Lukaku would rather be undisputed number 1 striker at Everton than fight for his place at CFC. Why would Jose lie about something like that? If Jose was lying about something like that surely Lukaku would come out and state that what Mourinho said was wrong, since he does like to talk? How have you even concluded that Lukaku would be 3rd choice behind Drogba? Who's the one guessing and making assumptions now?

Never mind that our manager came out and pretty much said exactly the same thing right...

Seems like I'm repeating myself, but have you ever thought about it the other way? Have you ever thought about the fact that Romelu didn't even want to be here to begin with and that he wanted assurances that he was the number 1 striker here?

Disagree with that. He was great under SAF.

It's funny because some were very certain Mourinho's team doesn't operate with a playmaker from a deeper position, nor an "attacking, creative left back" (as Jose describes him). We will definitely have the same underlying philosophy in our play (i.e. fast paced counter attacking football) but we will do so more expansively, and with the additions we've made it allows Jose to have even more weapons to tinker and change accordingly. 3 "clinical" signings as Jose likes to put it... It's going to be a very interesting year indeed.

If we needed a midfielder I'd say definitely, James is really underrated. But we really don't, so it'd be an unnecessary signing. We're stacked in midfield.

Really happy with the comments Jose has been making recently. We'll definitely see a return of the more expansive style of play we deployed in the earlier part of last season - this time however we'll be much better at it considering we finally have a fully balanced team. The additions of a top LB, top CF and a top CM were all vital and I'm glad Jose thought exactly the same thing. Definitely going to be a good year, Jose's confident because he has all the tools now.