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Boga is the one starting. Not Baker. But who just saw Akinfenwa Bloody hell

OK. I agree with the fact he wants to leave and why I think it would be a bad idea selling him I also see the other hand if he wants to leave and we want to get a lot of money before his value decreases but I don't agree with statements such as he "made a bitch move by quitting". Like yeah he could have stayed but he is ambitious and wanted to be starting every week. I just say that is a player who is eager to play football. I won't call him a coward or a bitch for that reason but yeah I agree if he stayed he probably would have got a lot of starts last season due to the inconsistencies of our strikers. I mean look at pastures new. I know Mourinho would rather players who want to stay here but for the benefit of the club and perhaps even player I would rather Mourinho just come out and state he wants him as part of our squad next seson and he sees him playing a key role. That is the vote of confidence he needs. It might initially annoy him but once he realises he is playing for a team competing for major honours he might just acknowledge the position he is at. I can't say for sure but some sources like the one I seen on this thread earlier state Lukaku never received any sort of call during his loan spell. He feels a bit outcasted imo not just because he feels he won't be no.1 but also because he is not feeling like he is wanted. As much as he talks to the media we should remember that he is still a young boy. I would rather a solution where we state he is staying. He will get his games this season and once the season finishes he might just reflect that he is not always a starter but he is getting games at one of the best teams in Europe. If he gets a vot of confidence as explained above I think that would be best for all parties concerned because we are in a position where with out current strikers, we don't need to look for another one imo. But that all changes once Lukaku leaves and what I think Lukaku, fans and the board need to realise all together is that even if he is not undisputed striker for the next season or 2 I still think he remains the future of this club.

He should be 2nd choice standard. He has earned that chance at least. It is ridiculous to say otherwise. We keep going back and forwards with this "he got a chance" and "he never got a chance" thing but simple thing is he scored goals again last season and now we have Costa, Lukaku should be 2nd choice striker. Simple. Why shouldnt he be second choice striker? He is better than Torres and proved he is capable of scoring goals. Costa as our no.1 striker and Lukaku as no.2 would be excellent. Also I will make my point firm on this. You say he asked to leave. I say Mourinho let him leave. He is the manager and he made the decision. Mourinho is manager end of the day right?

Is he no.2 though? He should be or is he going to have to wait for Torres to falter again. He is better than Torres and was coming into the start of last season. Costa is going to be the undisputed striker. He will be subbed some games when he looks tired and for cup games and might start the odd league games but think about it if Costa is ever rotated or subbed there is Torres. We saw what happened when Torres and Lukaku were in the same squad last season. Torres started 2 and Lukaku none and that was with us not knowing who our best striker is. Costa is here now and Torres. People seem to think it is guaranteed he is 2nd choice stiker. He should be but will he? Maybe not because there is still Torres

TBH while it was speculated I don't think Mandzukic was ever going to come here realistically unless it was as a last resort. He would have gone to a team which offered him guaranteed first team football which Atletico eventually did. If he came here he would of found himself in the same predicament he did at Bayern with Lewandowski coming in.

Michael Essien mate

If Drogba coming means getting rid of Lukaku that is ridiculous. Drogba won everything he needed to here and we should be building on with the future which I hope Lukaku is part of.

But offensively we were limited because Cole lost his legs and Azpi is not a natural LB and with him being right footed we were not as fluid attacking down the flanks.

Don't take this offensively but some people need to chill out a little. Some seem to think that a thrashing against Wycombe merits a first team place. It does not. Wycombe are a league 2 club who just about escaped relegation to the conference last season. We should be beating these teams. Nice for the youngsters to experience competitive action against physical players and 'professional' players but that does not indicate anything. Brown will not likely make an apperance for the first team this season unless he is extremely lucky or has very exceptional form. He is likely to be strictly with the U21 next season while playing in the youth cup as well. Bamford has done very well in his loans and would be a better 3rd choice option but I would rather him go and play regular football every week. Think it would do him good and also because we want to win the league this season and looks like Torres will be staying and possibly Lukaku he probably will be loaned again. If Lukaku leaves we likely will look to sign another striker. Brown scoring was very good for him. His second goal was exceptional but talk about him being part of the first team squad next season is ludicrous. He is not ready yet. If Solanke scores 2 against Wimbledon are we going to start saying he should be 3rd choice striker? I really hope not.

Cahill as to be there. Ivanovic should not be considered as an alternative. IMO he is the best CB at the club. Him and Terry are undisputed starters. MVG looks a good prospect and would be good to see him given some games but he is not going to be a starter. Definitely not imo. Needs to work his way through the cup games and then we can see if he can force his way into the first team. MVG has not done anything awful but he has not exactly shown anything remarkable. He is not good enough to be a guaranteed starter just yet.

As much as it may annoy people I really think people are forgetting that if the midfield stays how it is and there is no new additions, Ramires will start quite often. Especially if we play with a 4-3-3. If it is 4-2-3-1 he will be a sub some games but if we are going 4-3-3 he will often play alongside Fabregas. He really excels in a 4-3-3 btw and think he would do well there. Can see Mourinho doing this often.

I remember when the reserves had a match against Fulham a couple seasons ago and he was playing aged 15 and think it was his reserved debut. He was playing with the likes of Lukaku in a game we won 3-2 and he was the best player on the pitch. He played without no fear and so much flair (yes that rhymes ) and excelled in that no.10 role. Reading up more info of that particular game, it turns out that not only was it his U21/reserve team debut but amazingly he had no U18 football to his name at the current time which shows how much faith the reserve team manager had in him and trusted him to make the step up. Also scored a first half hatrick for the under 18s last season against Arsenal. Just look at that remarkable assist for Reece Mitchell at around 2:16

He is training and playing with the U21s.

I really don't see how claiming Koscielny is the best CB in the league is outrageous. He was brilliant last season. He could have easily got into the PL team of the season and probably got into other people's teams of the seasons. What you have to remember when Arsenal got battered by us 6-0, Liverpool 5-1, Man City 6-3 etc, it is easy to say he is not a world class CB but the simple reason is that there midfield gets overpowered and outrunned all the time in these big games. His main weakness is that he gives away penalties quite often but apart from that he is one of the fastest CB in the league, maybe the fastest, has a brilliant leap and he pretty much excels at everything else. People who reckon it is a laughable claim to assume he is an excellent CB are watching the Koscielny of his first season. I know it is just an opinion but even Micah Richards last season claimed that Koscielny had been the best CB in the league last season and that came from a non- Arsenal player. Him and Cahill are pretty similar. Same playing style but I would not take anyone over Cahill because like Koscielny he has came on leaps and bounds here and is arguably the best CB in the league himself judging on his performances. It is laughable that Kompany even got in team of the year. Should have been Cahill and Koscielny imo. Arteta does the job in games against much inferior teams but against the big teams he does not work hence why I think if they sign Khedira it will improve there physical aspect against the 'big teams'. He is also a much better all rounded better player than Arteta.

Liar

Boga is quality. I reckon he is one of the best teenage talents coming through and would be devastated to see talents such as him wasted. This is not just some knee-jerk reaction based on the game against Wycombe. This is from watching him over the last couple years and he always has stood out for me. A joy to watch. He plays exactly like Hazard and has the physical qualities as well. Hope he makes it here. Very level-headed from what I hear to.

Jay Da Silva on Really talented player. Versatile at LB and LW. Very dimunitive but really special talent.

He is perfectly fit. He is training and playing with U21s. Guess Mourinho feels he has too many CM at his disposal for this pre-season. Shame about him though. Thought he would have been a definite. He played our U21 game against Sutton United on saturday. That will be his group for the summer.

Already envisaging the link up play between Luis and Hazard

I seriously, seriously hope you will be made to eat your words. Despite his flaws I seriously reckon he will be unstoppable in a few years and reckon his sheer pace and power will help him. I reckon people are being quite oblivious if they think he won't improve. He is 21 and training every day. With time he will work on his flaws whilst improving on his strengths. I can almost guarantee that he will be scoring goals galore in a few years. He is really going to prove people wrong.

Hazard definitely has goals in him, he just needs to be more selfish sometimes. He got 18 goals for us last season and even minus the penalties his record would still reach into double figures. Hazard was our top scorer iirc and even in the previous seasons he has proved that he is capable of getting into double figures. Hazard would have had more last season had we had a striker like Costa whose link up play was good. We did not have that really apart from Eto'o. His goal against Newcastle a perfect example. Now we have Costa, I think that will help Hazard, plus the addition of Luis there will be more of Hazard.

Agreed. John Terry at his age is still a quality CB but he will not be able to play every game imo and will need the odd rest. While Ivanovic is a solid CB and that is probably his best position, has he played there often enough for us to prove he can be excellent cover if Terry suffered a long term injury? I am not sure. Zouma is a hot prospect but he still is a kid and while I think he will be a success I am not sure if he can be trusted to be thrown into the deep end if he were needed in PL games. I am impressed with what I have seen of Omeruo but again there is a big difference in playing for a team who aims to win the PL every season whilst also competing for the UCL. Big difference. Mourinho has shown he means business for next season and I would be very happy to see Terry, Cahill, Benatia and Ivanovic as our main CB next season. At this case I would be hopeful that Zouma can get a PL loan and avoid a similar situation to Kalas. Man City's poor defence excluding Kompany so nearly cost them last season and while Demichellis improved towards the end it was clearly a position they needed to address thus why they are spending a lot on Mangala. They now have on paper, 3 solid CB in Kompany, Mangala and Demichellis and a good young CB in Nastasic who has played enough PL games to show he is a decent option. If we have serious ambitions to win the league I would rather have quality CB and let the young ones develop at other clubs. Furthermore this sort of signing would make sure Terry and Cahill are not guaranteed a start every week as there is a CB who is rated as world class by some waiting to play and is good enough to start and thus hopefully will keep them at the top of their game but like you I am all for this signing. Makes sense.

While he is a brilliant option of the bench he has more than proved his worth when starting matches. Hatrick against Fulham for a start, 2 excellent goals against Stoke and a very good finish against PSG. He is a big game player. I don't think it is picked up on a lot but his finishing with his 'weaker' foot is excellent. Just look at his goal for Germany against Brazil for a start which is up there for goal of the tournament. His assist for the winning goal for Germany in the final was with his weaker foot. When we lost to Stoke 3-2 last season both goals were from Schurrle on his left foot and they were fantastic finishes. The 3-1 victory at Craven Cottage when he scored a hattrick, at least 2 of his goals were well executed finishes with his left foot, Very valuable player and when you have a player who is able to score goals from the offset or as a sub and is adapt on either foot I would definitely count him as an important first team player, especially if you also consider some of the key/big games his goals have came in.

By sending him on loan to other clubs? Basically we just bought him and dumped him on loan to other clubs. We hardly had a say in developing him.

I wonder how some of the top strikers of today were rated at 21 years of age. Guarantee you some of them had their faults but with age they improved. You are judging him as if he is the finished article. He still has got over a decade at playing at the top level. Give the lad a chance. Drogba probably was criticised heavily at a similar age and we know how good he turned out to be...