Leif

1 season too late, but still a decent signing if it happens. He's barely 'worse' than Drogba during his very final time here.

There's like, 300 strikers in Europe. To think our only options are Morata, Lukaku & Belotti is madness. To think only the players who grab the headlines are worthy of us is also madness.

She negotiates - she doesn't target the players, 'he' does; and it's our targets who are sub-par, not anyone's fees, nor the excellent amount of money we've been getting from our sales. There's no heat or microscope to put on her.

Here's a great random stat. Since joining Madrid, Ronaldo's averaged a hat-trick every 8 games.

But while everyone's bidding on the already-made gallon of water, some shrewd few will slowly be collecting their own raindrops, without paying the huge fees. There's only limited supply depending on where you look, and who you listen to.

He was given the Lyon top after a match in which he faced his friend Tolisso (apparently) (who just signed for Bayern, becoming their & the Bundesliga's most expensive ever player, lol.)

Piet de Visser gets credit for the Belgian finds, nobody else at the club deserves that credit.

What if this was a smokescreen all along for Mbappe Mbappe & Hazard, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Maybe gone off his tits on champagne and celebration.

Buying anyone for this amount of money, + the wages he'd be on, means being stuck with him for many, many years. Especially for us - when we buy big, we've too much pride to cut our losses - we stick with expensive failing players for a long time. So it'd be a panic buy. Certainly not a shrewd one, nor a pragmatic one. It'd be much better to just wait another season or 2 to see which young strikers come into their own, and then pull the trigger on someone who fits our profile for a fraction of the cost, meaning there's far fewer anchors chaining us to the player.

We can dream. Fingers crossed for Matic as player-manager too.

Darren Bent, Adebayor & Benteke have all had as prolific seasons as Lukaku in this league, you know. He's only scored 1 goal more than Vardy did the previous season, too. Elite players have done head & shoulders more than he has. Elite players have everyone in Europe talking about them, especially when they score loads, because they're exciting to see. Nobody outside this league gives a shit about Lukaku, because he offers nothing but stat-bloating. People tune in to Serie A just to see Dybala. People tune in to La Liga just to see Griezmann. People tune in to the Bundesliga just to see Dembele. People tune in to Ligue 1 just to see Mbappe. Nobody in their right mind would tune in to the Premier League just to watch Lukaku for 90 minutes. It'd be nauseating. And no top player has ever been anything but beautiful to watch.

Time heals. There's no reason why Costa can't give us another solid season, leaving next Summer, not January.

As pointed out on Twitter; Sky broke the news Sky's Jim White, who knows more about Everton's transfer dealings than most, breaks the news that no, no fee has been agreed. And, the cynical people who I wouldn't necessarily discount, are suggesting Sky simply wanted to rake in some mullllaaaa on their betting site.

If all a striker should give you is goals we would've signed Defoe. Or Lukaku. But this isn't done yet. Sky aren't reputable anymore, at all.

I agree that he isn't a champion mentally. But, if you surround him with champions, he'll score a heck load I think. He reminds me of Benzema in that regard.

#serioustalks

Lukaku's a stat-whore. Look further beneath the surface if he ends up 'great', either here or United; there's more to the game than numbers. Balotelli has great stats too, his worst periods no worse than Lukaku's. People just glide over the fact too that he's proven 0 connection with Hazard with the national team. 0 connection with his own Everton players after a handful of seasons. You just can't make an argument that he's anything above 'decent'.

How many top teams do Juventus, Bayern, or PSG have to face a season? How many do we? They can afford to, and always do, rest their very best striker(s), while playing youth or otherwise for half the games of a season. They can save Lewandowski & Cavani for the big games in Europe, pulling them off after 60 mins each game. If we saved Costa that way, for example, mainly for the big games like these others do, our season would collapse. Where is our Dybala? And Mandzukic? Don't imply Juventus don't have multiple top strikers. Where is our Muller? Their Plan-B centre forwards are as good as all our Plan-A ones from the past 5 years. Why wouldn't you compare us to teams in our own league? Because it defeats & contradicts your point? Any point no matter how solid can have a point built against it if someone wants to build it enough - that doesn't mean it's valid. The idea that for Chelsea, to win both league titles and European titles, multiple top strikers aren't needed, isn't valid. That shouldn't even need explained, it's obvious why a team can't do that, why 1 striker can't do that. Like you, I can just ask, how many great strikers do Barcelona have? How many great strikers did United have last season? How many great strikers did we have during our most successful period? How many great strikers do Man City, our actual competition, not PSG, have? Did I just make a point by asking those questions? No, because they're obviously stupid in this context. Comparing us to a team who couldn't even win the French league this season, to a team that beat Roma by 4 points, their worst season in ages, to a team who walk the league even with half of their players injured. Not a strong rebuttal.

......................why do people still believe our managers choose our signings 100% of the time ._. it's more like they present 3 options to the board, who come back with 2 players of their own who're seemingly similar, and its one of those 2 players our manager gets to choose from.

Everton are without question the team to enjoy watching next season, win or fail. With or without Rooney. They're finally showing they have balls - genuinely for the first time in my life. Liverpool fans were laughing a few weeks ago at their transfer policy, but all of a sudden they know who to get rid of, and not just who but what to bring in. I can't see Sandro Ramirez/Rooney/Giroud all being there, though, with Giroud being the least likely. He'd know there's no going back from Everton at this age; he'd do better trying to play for a Milan club, or even Dortmund once they've no doubt got some funds.

Regardless whether he's 'good enough' or not, he doesn't have 4+ lungs - we will not compete in many tournaments if we continue this shambolic trend of only having 1 great striker. We've had Drogba, Anelka, and Kalou at the same time. Lining up against anyone in the league or in Europe, at least with the first two, you didn't expect a downgrade in quality. Kalou was a solid back up. We've had Drogba & Torres - not exactly clear who was second-fiddle, but we had 2 experienced players who've done & proven it all. We've had Eto'o, Ba, Torres, Schurrle - all capable strikers who at that point, were still among the upper end of strikers in the league. 4 of them. Now, we're going to have Lukaku and probably Michy. It's hilarious. These are kids. And they're going to be kids even late into their 30's. We've gone from flamethrowers & cannons to water pistols. Everyone else outside of Chelsea seems to have a shred more sanity. Our fanbase would consider Morata & Lukaku enough; even just Martial & Lukaku enough.

I'd love to see just 2 examples of credible City supporters saying our board is better than theirs, because it'd make them even more hilarious. Where did you read/hear it?

Schurrle 2.0