Chelsea Legend 11

??? I fail to see how your quote has any relevance. Young striker wanted to play and didn't see many opportunities at the club, what's the big deal?

I like having guys who want to be at the club and in the dressing room. Too often in the modern game you get players who don't have any connection with the club who say sh_t like "I want to leave and go back to Atleti" We need players who want to be at the club, its great for the fans and also for the image of the club... No real football related pluses unless you buy the whole "I will die on the pitch for the club I love" argument.

What's changed? A few months ago you were all over this.

Am I missing something here? Lukaku scored 25 goals last season correct? He is homegrown, right? He loves Chelsea, right? Played with a bunch of stiffs last year, right? He is 24 and can actually still grow, right? I think people need to relax and allow the board and Conte to do their job. Many of you here, including myself have proven to be VERY wrong on more than a few occasions. Its best to take chill pill, he's not Torres, he's not Shevy, he's Lukaku who has bled blue since he was a teenager.

He is also just 22 and playing with what was pretty much the youngest team in the knockouts... Not to mention he broke his nose and had to wear a mask for the first time against Juve, no easy feat.

He's a hack... I got banned from his twitter account for exposing his bulls__t over and over again,

LOL... What are you looking for Cruyff turns and rabona flicks??? He's a freaking CF not a false 9 or a 10... The skill set you associate with a CF are well under display here and I would go as far as to challenge to to find me 10 better out and out strikers in the world. First of all, the most important SKILL a striker can possess is his finishing ability. The second most important SKILL is hold up play, particularly in a 1 striker system. Link up play is also key but not really a qualifiable skill since you need players around you in order to grade your effectiveness. He is an exceptional lone striker who is highly clinical in the box. Let the magic and ingenuity come from our wingers and midfielders, Lukaku just has to be there to finish off opportunities to make us better.

LOL... I can't tell the last time I read such a load of rubbish. Really wish people would just start their posts with "firstly, I don't like the guy" that way I will know to ignore the ridiculous comments on here.

Sorry I don't believe that publication at all... Having said that I'm not that high on Tolisso so its not really a huge concern for me.

I can point to hundreds of reports they have made claims to and cocked up...

L'Equipe is rubbish

I don't think its out of the question. Mbappe can definitely play out wide and in a strike partnership.

I stand by that, the club still have to evaluate the market to see if there is an option that is cheaper who addresses the same needs. What I said is it depends on the market, strikers, CB's are bend over worthy in my opinion. Wingers, FB's not so much... Sandro happens to be a WB and I believe there is loads of talent in this position so the club shouldn't have to pay over the odds. I just want them to because I think Sandro is exquisite, they may see better value in the market though

that wouldn't be the net spend.

Most of those loose touches are with his back to goal and with a defender all over him. What this video illustrates to me is he is a poor passer...

I think this video backs up the hard stats Lukaku Dispossessed per game - 2.4 (28th in Europe) Lukaku Bad Control per game - 2.1 (113th in Europe) Dribbles per game 1.7 (2nd amongst pure strikers in the Prem behind only Aguero)

Brilliant video here illustrating how much he's improved at Everton

This is not really the point is it? Luiz met and exceeded his valuation based on his play to this point, anything that happens subsequent to that is debatable for another day. Furthermore, anyone on the market regardless of their name will be graded on their most recent body of work first and history second. I have no idea why you're talking about our defenders here. The nature of the discussion to this point has been about whether or not we should just pay whatever fee necessary to secure a player's signature. Nowhere have I mentioned we are set defensively because we bought Luiz. I merely said we weren't gonna be held for ransom for Koulibaly and by sticking to our guns we ended up with this season's best CB. Going forward we may need to look at that position because the gap between the starters and the ones next in line great. Ake, Christensen and Zouma need a buffer in between them... Someone around the age of 26-27. You are missing the point entirely. We refused to pay the extortionist prices Napoli wanted for Koulibaly, for half his reported transfer fee we ended up with the best defender in the Prem this year. Improvements or reinforcements? I'd say that's still up in the air. Having said that you're still missing the point, our secondary targets did a fantastic job making us less desperate to pay over the odds for a better player. Yes and because they were largely successes it makes our pursuit of better talent less arduous, we aren't in a position now where we go to a potential seller and say "name your price" Whether or not we knew or not is irrelevant, he WAS that good and as I've been saying proved to be more valuable than his outlay. And with regards to Laporte or K2 we don't need to know how they would fit because we performed just fine without them. They could've come here and flopped hard but its hard to imagine that even if they were successful that their seasons would surpass the one Luiz just had. We don't have a bottomless pit of money, with that in mind we can't just issue blank cheques. I want Sandro! I really do! But I can understand if the club have set limits to how high they will go for him. We have other needs and other targets and its not like every need has to be addressed in this particular window, especially given the fact we've proven to be successful with secondary targets. Yes Alonso may not be that but who's to say Conti isn't? Just a random name. You keep on ignoring one important caveat to this all, we should not be held for ransom! Its not a sustainable business model to just pay whatever the seller wants unless of course it fits into your budget. Completely different landscape to the one we tread on now, you can't ignore this. No idea what it has to do with, maybe we can't go big in the market like we used to? I have no problem with spending big on the right target in a restrictive market, what I don't like is bending over for targets when the market shows there maybe be cheaper alternatives. Strikers, I'd bend over for... CB's, I'd bend over for... Wingers and fullbacks, I wouldn't because there is loads of good talent there... I would bend over for Sandro however.

Another stat that goes unnoticed is Dispossessions per game and unusable touches per game. Costa was the second worst in both categories this year, only Zaha was worse. Costa Dispossessed per game - 3.4 (3rd worst in all of Europe) Costa Bad Control per game - 3.1 (9th worst in all of Europe) Those numbers are horribly bad... Lukaku Dispossessed per game - 2.4 (28th in Europe) Lukaku Bad Control per game - 2.1 (113th in Europe)

Thats not true at all. Just this year Napoli tried that with Koulibaly, we ended up with the best CB in the premier league in Luiz. There are always other targets its just about how well you read the market. In the case of Strikers you clearly have to pay a mint because nobody sells them and so few are worth their valuation, but in the case of FB/wingers the market is definitely growing. The image that always has to be prevalent is Chelsea will not be taken to the cleaners to get players, signings like Alonso, Luiz and Kante only strengthen our position. This is sometimes true and could very well be the case with Sandro, but agents and players also have a say in this. A lot of times its the players who force moves, once its made public the player doesn't want to stay the valuation drops. Ummm what? Are we talking Euros???? I'm pretty sure Baba's price was £14m rising to £22m if certain benchmarks are hit. That number is completely different to 50m but I also understand that Sandro is a different player. Baba was a potential buy, Sandro is a starter. I don't know what you're talking about here, Luiz and Alonso were brilliant buys, they clearly met their valuation and in some ways exceeded it. This is exactly the types of deals we need to continue to be successful at! And yes I would love another marquee signing, someone with a big price tag and an established pedigree. This may be the summer for it too, but I stand by what I've said the club can't be held ransom to do it.

The problem here is you are mentioning the best in the game at it (playing in tight spaces and scoring goals) then you're offering up Morata like he's even close to their level... He's not he's the watered down version. Modric and Cesc have different tactical deployments... Modric sets the tempo, Fabregas delivers the final ball. This next piece is and interesting argument one that I think is highly subjective too. Is the only way to beat Bayern Munich to out-football them? Not sure this approach will get you very far... How much are you willing to invest in Morata based on the potential his spacial awareness, finishing, movement, composure and stamina will improve markedly? Based on what I've seen(and no I don't know the future) he looks like a poor mans version of what you'd like him to be and because the market for strikers is so poor he moves to the top of the queue. Okay you speak of balance but what you are doing here is favouring ball retention to natural goalscoring ability. You would rather your primary goalscorer bang in 15-19 over the other guy who may not be as nice on the ball but can get you 25-30. As I've said many times before I'd take the goals up top and look for the ingenuity and ball retention elsewhere. Yes Chelsea have played against teams that park the bus and its often taken a while to break them down, but the two things that won us the title this year are fitness and stamina. Every team is gonna struggle to find ways to beat teams that sit deep, look at Utd, City and Liverpool of you want examples. What we've been able to do is wear down opponents because we're physically fitter the same can be said about Tottenham... Lukaku gives us a bonafide finisher when chances fall to him(at least that's what I think we're buying. Hate to break it to you but Conte is closer to Jose than he is to Pep... He prefers balance but deploys rigidness. The next five years will produce the same amount of attacking fluidity as it will counter attacking incisiveness. That's why I love Conte he just comes up with the best plan to win the game.

Having said that GIVE JUVE THE GOD DAMN MONEY!

That's not a sustainable model. While things do take a while to get done I have no problem with the club not being held for ransom. We have to lose this image that as soon as Chelsea come the price becomes treble the valuation.

No they haven't

Why is that even relevant? How do you know it didn't have anything to do with 3rd party agreements?