The only place to be

Yes I do call it a chance. He got 15 minutes in the first match, 25 in the next. Some people here think he should've had everything handed to him on a silver platter which maybe is a reflection of their own worldview, but the reality is that you EARN things in this world. He did well at West Brom which meant he got a chance to EARN a place at Chelsea and he was being given opportunities in both pre-season and in the league (as well as the Super Cup) to do that. The simple fact is that HE DECIDED (he's been very explicit about that) to leave Chelsea Football Club despite him being included in the matchday squads for every match he was available for. Pointing that out doesn't make me a hater but ignoring it makes people look very biased.

Not this bollocks again. Hard to give a player 10-15 straight games when he's at Everton. Oh, so it has to be 10-15 games without pressure as well now? Because that's something that is possible at this club. He did do fairly well at Everton, but he's inconsistent. He's still not ready to be number one here but he can definitely contribute if he wants to. He CHOSE not to last season. Well you're wrong about that too. Good effort all round.

He got three chances in our first four games of the season....so, um well done with that.

Two isn't it? I mean I could trawl through all of his interviews over the last year. The fact that he's made it abundantly clear that he made the decision to leave because he didn't think he'd get enough games. The comments about staying at Everton if they got European football, as if that's his choice. The support of Anelka after he made a quenelle gesture (defending anti-Semitic gestures when your club's chairman is not just a Jew, but a strong supporter of Jewish causes). He's a good goalscorer but at some point the mouth attached is simply not worth the hassle. Whereas Lukaku has no vested interest in speaking well about the club? Torres said the right thing. It's really not a tough thing to do, to talk in cliches and avoid any hint of controversy because talking isn't the job. Kicking a football is the job. But Lukaku has a problem and Jose nailed it - he likes to talk. The most frustrating thing is that he had it on a silver platter this year - an opportunity to establish himself at this club when his competition was at the weakest it has been for almost a decade, but instead of biding his time (like other, much better players have done) and impressing in the chances he was given HE decided to leave. The funny thing is that he talks in that interview about admiring players like Ronaldo, Drogba and Rooney and completely misses the point. Rooney backed his talent and went FROM Everton TO a top club, not the other way around. Drogba went FROM Marseille TO a top club. Even Ronaldo went FROM Sporting TO Man United...and even started off on the bench.

I actually started to think that he'd be a necessity if we signed Fabregas and let Mikel go, simply because of his workrate. But if those figures are close to being true then I'd sell him and use some of that money to buy a fuckload of Red Bull. Chalobah and Van Ginkel are promising defensively, maybe even Ake. I'd even look at Alex Song who was rumoured to cost £10 million and is homegrown if we flogged Rami, because that fee (a profit no less) is just too enticing.

I think everyone just needs to chill. We all know Lukaku is a talented goalscorer and I think everyone would love to see him succeed here either in the short-term or a few years down the line (there's really no rush with him). It's just the stuff he says and the frequency with which he says it that's a problem for some, including Jose. He likes to talk. Jose likes players who do their talking on the pitch. When Torres is discussing a signing in more admirable terms than you are then maybe that's a sign that you should either take a bit more time to formulate a response or simply shut up. There's also some bad feeling from some supporters because Lukaku seems to think that he should simply have been given a starting spot last season. Yes he was impressive at West Brom and that's what led to him getting a shot last season, and he did. In the first four games he was involved three times, yet that wasn't good enough. He seems to have a bit of a chip on his shoulder when he has achieved the square root of fuck all in the game thus far. He actually said this Because how you could be on the bench after the year I had last year? http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/romelu-lukaku-exclusive-im-everton-3374966#ixzz342T4cC8t

Don't judge Stingray. The evil British media is mistranslating his comments in a grand anti-Belgian conspiracy.

No, he's a professional footballer. He's also an adult. Maybe he needs better advisors because he's getting shit advice at every turn.

Here's what he could have said.... It's the same every summer. No-one has ever given me anything on a plate. They made me compete for my place the very moment I got into the first team; that's what they taught me and it'll be that way until I leave. The higher quality players that come - and Diego Costa is quality - the greater the competition will be and the better it'll be for the team." http://www.marca.com/2014/06/07/en/football/international_football/1402127545.html

I don't think any supporter wants him out. They just don't feel overly enamoured with a player who likes to talk and reportedly asked for a transfer away from the club they support. Personal goals? Wasn't one to play for Chelsea? He featured in three of the first four games of the season and his competition was UTTER WANK. What more of a chance do you want for him? Mandzukic is a good shout as he offers something different from Costa and Lukaku but that's besides the point. Lukaku doesn't seem to be able to cope with any situation where he isn't undisputed first choice. He was given chances in league matches to impress, like other players, but that wasn't good enough apparently. Assure the guy? What the fuck? He gets a contract, a weekly wage to play for this club. He gets a squad number. He gets a chance every day to train in front of the coaches. He gets to go on the Stamford Bridge pitch in front of 42,000 people.... The guy had a chance that 99.99999999% of footballers will NEVER have but because he had Demba Ba, Fernando Torres and Samuel Eto'o as competition, he asked to leave. In the real world, you face competition every day. The ones who succeed are the ones who don't see competition as a threat, but as an opportunity. They weren't even very good competition. But if you're the type of person who thinks that every new hiring is in some way unfair then that's fine. I'm not gonna change your mind. But I have more respect for people who work harder when the chips are down, which is why I (and EVERY SINGLE CHELSEA SUPPORTER) absolutely adore Azpilicueta and why I'm utterly ambivalent about whether or not Lukaku stays or goes. We're winning the league either with him or without him.

Azpilicueta didn't start a game until 24/9 against Swindon in the League Cup. He didn't start another one for a month. His first league start was a month after that, but he then won the place through sheer hard work. Why couldn't Lukaku do that? Is it beneath him?

Oh dear....you're flailing around and conflating different things. Take a break, have a nice cuppa and remember that it's just one player. The club is fine either way. Ultimately we're all Chelsea supporters and we want the club to be successful. We want players who want to be here (most of us anyway) and if Lukaku doesn't then that's fine. OK

First four games of last season, used three times. Not given a chance though.

Hey, fingers crossed right.... Ironically Lukaku just needed to keep his mouth shut and he could be our main striker. If he hadn't asked for a transfer he'd have still been here and would've got more chances. Oh well....

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/nov/29/jose-mourinho-romelu-lukaku-chelsea-everton http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/445944/Lukaku-handed-in-transfer-request Dom Fifield at The Guardian is a decent journo, but he might be wrong too. Maybe Jose didn't say Why do you never say why you are not here?' and those cameras that caught him saying it are lying. Maybe it was an actor, or some elaborate animatronic. Does Jose Mourinho even exist or is he an apparition constructed of our collective wills?? Lukaku is a talent so why would we sell him? You do need to bear in mind the timing of his request towards the end of the window. JT and his agent acted the cunt to extract as much money from the club as he could when negotiating his contract. He never went to the extent Rooney did to hand in a request, although it's interesting how much supporters mocked the United fans who just bent over and took it from Rooney TWICE when he said he wanted to leave the club. What a bunch of mugs they were for doing that.

Chelsea buy top players because they are a top club. I just need to focus on my own game and apply myself in every training session. Lukaku speaks six languages....surely he could say something like this in one of them.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11661/9048809/romelu-lukaku-made-a-transfer-request-at-chelsea-before-his-everton-loan Change their mind?? He got chances. He got minutes in THREE of the first four games of the season. Does anyone here seriously think he wouldn't have had more chances? Azpi had to wait until the end of September to get a chance and he took it with both hands, and his competition was Cole and Ivanovic. Lukaku only had to do more than Lukaku, Ba and an out-of-shape Eto'o . What more did he want? So what if he walked up to Jose and said that he didn't want to represent this club anymore? My feelings aren't hurt. It's got nothing to do with arrogance. I'm just fairly ambivalent to him. If someone says then they don't want to play for this club and it's supporters then that's fine. No-one's forcing him to, in fact it's an honour to play for this club in my opinion. He had that chance, he decided he didn't want it and he can go off and have a nice career elsewhere. This club will survive and prosper with or without Romelu Lukaku.

In Marca, the Mirror and The Sun. So complete bollocks probably.

Just because someone can say something, doesn't mean they should. Lukaku might need to learn this, as might you.

He asked for a transfer. He's a professional footballer, paid a lot of money to represent the club he 'loves' and he asked to leave. If he wants to be defended because he's a 'kid' then he can sign YTS forms and we'll save a fuck load of money on him. But he doesn't He wants to be paid like a MAN so he needs to take responsibility for his actions like a MAN. He's proven nothing in a Chelsea shirt. He had the chance to though. He had the chance to turn up at Cobham everyday and impress the coaches. He even had chances in front of 42,000 supporters at Stamford Bridge and he would've had more. So we should keep players who don't back themselves against '3 idiots' and ask for a move to a club where it's easier to get in the first team? OK. I can see Jose nodding in agreement with that sentiment. No-one wants to kill him. In fact most people seem to think he's a very bright prospect, so there's no reason to misrepresent these people as hysterical harridans. To be honest that's coming from people like you. I think a few supporters simply don't have much time for players who 'likes to speak' (Jose's words) and who ask to leave the club. The badge means more to us that that.

What would I have done? Dunno. I'm not a top-level sportsman with a huge competitive instinct and the mental toughness to back myself when faced with adversity. So I'd have probably asked to go somewhere where I'd have been guaranteed a spot. Hang on, Everton are calling me on my other line. BRB. So you don't think that we should judge a player on his actions. You don't think that asking for a transfer away from this club when faced with a bit of adversity is reflective of his attitude? Do you think Jose might look into that a bit? Lukaku got chances at the start of the season. He would've got more because Torres is shit, Ba is average and Eto'o was old and out of shape. Who the fuck is Lukaku surrounding himself who would give him advice to ask to leave one of the biggest clubs in the world when that was his competition? He was in the squad for EVERY game he was here. He got progressively more minutes in the league and one of the greatest coaches in world football backed him to take a penalty against the European champions. But yes....blah, blah Sturridge...blah blah oh you're so great Lukaku we'll not survive without you.

He's a great utility option, but I can see us recalling Van Aanholt, flogging him to some other club and then loaning Ake to Vitesse to play at left-back. He doesn't offer as much going forward as PVA but he's a far more rounded player than he was at the same age.

I love that your 'favourite player' is Azpi, a man who wasn't first choice and fought for his place, won it and kept it. So of course you'd defend a guy who saw Ba, Torres and Eto'o in front of him, thought 'that's too much for me to beat out' and WALKED INTO JOSE'S OFFICE AND ASKED TO LEAVE. Jose puts mental strength above EVERYTHING else. Why people can't see the conflict between those two I don't know. Lukaku needs Chelsea a hell of a lot more than we need someone who has said quite clearly he doesn't want to be a part of this club.

Not reading past that mate.

Fourth choice CB isn't going to get a massive amount of minutes so it's about blooding the player, getting him used to being in the squad, learning our game and giving Jose a proper chance to assess him. Kalas had that, Zouma needs that. Having said that I get the feeling Jose sees something in Zouma that he likes. Physically he's on a completely different level to Kalas.