Pizy

Hope it doesn't happen, but imagine Costa back at Atleti. He and Griezmann together under Simeone. Fucking hell what a duo. They'd be CL favorites. If only we could see that partnership here...

Emenalo probably jerks himself to sleep thinking of masterminding Lukaku's return. As long as we address all of our other needs in addition to signing Lukaku I won't care. If we go and spend a ridiculous amount on him and it means we can't sign midfielders and defenders of a certain level and instead have to settle for average ones I'll be livid.

Agreed. On his day he's unplayable and bullies teams like Drogba. Other days Everton looked like they were playing with 10 men. I'm so conflicted on this. If he wants so badly to return to a club that got rid of him then I suppose it shows he truly loves Chelsea like he said he did. Him returning and fulfilling his potential under Conte sounds romantic. That would be cool to see. On the other hand, £65m is a mental amount to pay for him.

Certainly seems to be heating up. It just makes no sense at all unless the club have decided to sell Diego Costa. Don't see how their styles and qualities mesh together and neither would be happy or willing to not start every week. They'd both benefit from having a technically gifted "second striker" style player partnering them. They're too similar to one another to play together.

Another lazy media link I think. It's like they think Conte has only ever watched Serie A football and nothing else.

My thoughts as well. If Matic goes it can't be to another English club. Far too risky and could easily bite us in the ass. Give him until at least January to see if he can return to the real Matic.

Imagine some of the players we could get with that money... Could surely sign anyone outside of a handful of players in world football with that much money. Even our board aren't this mad.

Yep. Also those same fans over on RedCafe by the hundreds who made fun of us Chelsea fans for "accepting" his shit football. They would always say "sure, he wins, but I wouldn't want to trade exciting, attacking football for shit, defensive football even if we're winning." Now they're desperate for him.

Bullshit, Gil. He's not world class anymore like he was when he was here but he's several levels better than Aaron Ramsey. Only thing that holds him back is his lack of versatility. When he isn't played in a very specific position his effectiveness drops dramatically. I 100% believe that if he goes to a club and plays strictly behind a prolific striker he'd put up silly numbers.

If Mata wasn't right for Mourinho-ball there's no way he would be for Conte's style of constant pressing. Similarly to José, it seems Conte prefers his midfielders to be powerful and athletic and able to get around the pitch. The exact opposite of what Mata is in other words. Honestly feel bad for the guy. He has probably made a nice life for himself and settled perfectly in Manchester after being put out of the club and city he appeared to love when he was here. Now the guy who sold him is coming and will probably sell him again. He's going to have to uproot his life once more. I think José will play nice with him initially and say he'll use Mata, but after a couple of months of Mata being unable to play to Josés liking he'll be gone in the January window after riding the bench for a while.

I notice the inevitable Zlatan rumors are heating up alongside the Mourinho news. Would be a shame to have to hate one of my all time favorite players if he signs for them. Hopefully he'll find the PL much more difficult to succeed in than Ligue 1. Who am I kidding, though. He'll terrify most sides here before even stepping on the pitch.

Wonder if the tiger will be able to change his stripes. When he comes up against the other big sides will he set out to play attacking football or will he do what he has always done and play the pragmatic, counter attacking style?

Man City used it to great effect just before Pellegrini went there with Agüero, Dzeko, Negredo, etc. A more traditional #9 (Dzeko) paired with a supremely gifted and technical one in Agüero. Liverpool used Suarez and Sturridge very effectively together. Two technically gifted strikers can work too.

Yeah, and PL defenses already struggle against just a single striker. Imagine if teams had to not only deal with Costa but also another highly mobile striker. Then they'd still have Hazard and Willian to worry about too. Look at the problems Watford gave everyone including the big clubs like ourselves and Arsenal by playing two up top. Or West Ham at times. It can certainly be highly effective even in modern football.

Spot on. This exactly why we should be after him. We need a striker that's actually a properly great footballer. Diego Costa is a brilliant goal scorer and is excellent off the ball, but he's admittedly quite limited technically. Morata wouldn't need to score 20-25 goals to be considered a success.

I just wonder if he's given the club a list of targets already or has been completely focused only on Italy until after the Euro's. We risk the prices skyrocketing even further if a player we want has a great tournament.

If only the extent of our terrible season ended with us scraping 4th rather than 10th. Then we'd actually have a small chance of convincing Griezmann to join up. He'd be perfect up top next to Diego. Obviously zero chance without CL football.

Definitely understandable. It would just suck if one of our rivals buys him and he continues banging them in and becomes the player we hoped for when we first bought him.

The club aren't that stupid. Musonda has all the signs of a future star.

Think it also says something that almost all of the Everton fans I've seen online wouldn't be bothered at al to see him go. Many are happy to see it as a matter of fact. When he's on top of his game he's an unplayable monster. When he's off form or not bothered due to a poor attitude he's Giroud-tier. £30-35m, okay. Not £60m or more.

United fans can get super excited though because they know what Mou brings: instant, short term success and heavy spending. City and Arsenal fans know what to expect from Pep and Wenger: beautiful, intricate football. Liverpool and Spuds fans know what to expect from Poch and Klopp: high intensity, pressing football. With Conte we haven't got a clue what formation(s) he may use, what positions he may want to strengthen, which players we currently have that he'll want to keep or sell, or the actual style of football he wants to use. What I'm saying is I have no idea what to expect with us. All we really have is a bunch of players we've been linked with that are supposedly ones that Conte wants but could just as well be fabricated by the media like they usually are.

I'll be able to "move on" when I have an idea of the type of team Conte wants to build and what type of football he wants to play. Currently we have no clue about either of those things so it's bit hard for me to get too excited.

In terms of pure football technique you're correct, but Lukaku is on pace to be one of the PL's all time goal scorers. He scores no matter where he is. All I'm saying is that no, he definitely isn't worth this insane price, but I wouldn't mind us giving him another shot. I just don't see how he and Costa coexist.

This is true. We know Pep and Mou will be buying galacticos and big names. We won't be able to attract those types of players so hopefully Conte can sign a few in that level just below and coach them up like he did in Italy. With only domestic football to focus on we should have every opportunity to help Conte adjust. Again, assuming we buy some quality.

Anyone will look like mugs paying that amount for him. That's the sort of fee you'd expect to pay for one of the world's best players. Honestly, though, you have to look at it a bit like the Martial fee. Is it crazy to pay so much for him? Yes. But you'll get a super young goal scorer who can play for your club for 10 years. Can you imagine what Harry Kane would cost?