CHOULO19

Exactly. At West Brom, not at Chelsea. How many teams in the PL last season tried to go all out attacking, press high and leave spaces behind the defense against us? Agree on all of the above, but I just don't think he'll be the 'star' of our attack if he comes. He can definitely make a difference like grab the only goal in a scrappy 1-0 away win for example. But I doubt we'll shape our attack around him like United did with RVP or Liverpool with Suarez.

Rooney is valuable because he gives Jose tactical options that none of our current strikers can provide. He is obviously versatile and can play all over midfield and attack (except DM obviously), and he's also the perfect second striker and gives Jose the option to play with two strikers as a plan B like he has been talking about. And obviously he will be an improvement to the players we currently have. The 24m we're willing to pay for him are not just about improving us but weakening united who rely on him a lot. Lukaku was playing that high up against Malaysia simply because of the poor defending by the Malaysians. He won't ever get nearly that much space to exploit in the PL.

Burkina Faso is currently ranked 42 in the world. They won the African Cup of Nations 2 years ago.

I have a better suggestion. How about we see how he actually performs like in his natural position before we start talking about changing his position?

The striker will never be the focal point of our attack, imo. His main job will always be to link-up and create spaces with his movement for the attacking midfielders to exploit.

These rumors of him leaving are normal during contract renewal. His agent is trying to gain leverage.

And whenever we've won the PL, our strikers had barely scored 30% of our goals. Chelsea have relied on various sources for goal for a very long time now and that trend is only increasing with the type of attacking midfielders we're getting. Rooney will definitely be a boost, but he will never be to us what RVP was for united last season.

Well as long as it's a reliable source..

Like I said, that would be a marginal improvement as the vast majority of the chances will fall to the attacking midfielders themselves,

He turns 18 in September. Then he can sign a contract with the club and we can make sure that no one else is going to "steal" him. He probably won't get a work permit here now, but in Jan we can loan him to out side of England and he can get a work permit there. He'll get a work permit in England and be able to play with us when he plays for Burkina Faso in an official competition.

The best thing for him would be to go out on loan to a club that needs a player like him and can guarantee him playing time. He is at a crucial time in his development and game time is crucial.

I disagree. With or without Rooney, our attack will be centered around our attacking midfielders and the vast majority of our goals will always come from midfield. I honestly believe that any improvement in the striker department would only be a marginal one.

What a complete non-story, covered with ignorance. Journalism never ceases to make me cringe..

He will play with the team in the 4 scheduled games in the US. But yes, it seems an incredibly stupid time to have an international friendly.

Exactly, he had a bigger impact off the bench against big teams because when he came on in the last 20 mins there was a lot more space to exploit. For me he's still not comfortable enough with his back to goal to be first choice at Chelsea just yet. I am confident he will start the Hull game if we don't get Rooney as Torres will not be available for that one.

He still has a lot to improve on in that department. Even at Westbrom, Clark was always reluctant to play him when he needed an isolated striker to hold up play and often preferred Long to him on those situations and only brought Lukaku on in the final 20mins or so when there would be much more spaces for him to explore.

Jose Mourinho has revealed today that Torres, Mata and Azpilliceta are set to miss our Premiere League opener against newly promoted Hull City due to their involvement with the Spanish national team. The current world and Europe champions face the Ecuador in a friendly match two days before the start of the 2013-14 Premiere League and will only return to Cobham less than 24 hours before Chelsea's match against Hull. And our Portuguese manager has been talking to the media about how that will affect his team selection: "My lineup will depend a lot on which players go away with their national teams two days before the opening of the Premier League," Mourinho said. "If one has to go to Ecuador and comes back and arrives in London on Saturday without having slept after a 15-hour flight, coming in to train on Saturday morning, I don't think he is going to play on Sunday. If a player plays for England on Wednesday against Scotland, let's say plays for 45 minutes at Wembley and then an hour after the game he is at home in Cobham sleeping, he is in a better condition to play." The special one has also revealed that the date for the Aston Villa clash, which is yet to be set, will be another factor in his team selection saying "if we have to play against Aston Villa two or three days later, I will have to think about two or three matches at the same time. If the game is postponed until two months later and I have only one match in a week, I will think differently. It depends on the situation." Click here to view the article

Lukaku did better than Torres, yes, but at West Brom who only play counter attacking football which suites Romelu the most. But at Chelsea, Romelu will mostly be playing hold-up play which was always one of his main weaknesses. Yes he is young and will develop and he will be given a lot of playing time by Jose, but I just think that when it matters most in big games, Torres will get picked ahead of him.

Di Marzio is reliable?!! Did I miss something?

There you go. Midfield problems solved..

I wouldn't worry about that. Both parties want the same thing.

That is somewhat true, but he's still better than Lukaku, imho. I do hope he proves me wrong, but I think he still needs some work before he can link-up and hold-up well enough for a team like Chelsea in the PL.

In terms of vision, passing and creativity, Josh is head and shoulder above Wilshere and every other U21 English player. In terms of everything else, Wilshere is miles ahead.

Do you honestly believe that? Lukaku on the ball is still rather poor and he still needs some experience to improve his decision making as in when to run with the ball and when to release it and when to just put your back to the defender and keep the ball until someone arrives in support. You're basically saying exactly what I'm saying but coming to a different conclusion: But if you acknowledge that Torres is better on the ball than Romelu, then how come you "really don't think Torres is any better at linking up play than Lukaku."?

Same here. My first impression was "Please don't be the cruciate ligament". But I was very relieved to see him walking on it. Hopefully with a couple of weeks rest he'll be as good as new.