🇧🇪 Romelu Lukaku

[Leif 6,006]

Have you ever had 3 different pestos in your cupboard, all from expensive companies, all with loads of 5 star reviews online... only to try them each, day after another, to discover that one of them...is absolutely bonkers - in a bad way?
Where is the nuance? Why are your reviews so good? Is it because you appeal to a different (larger) demographic, where the others are made with the purest, traditional recipes, for purists?

Lukaku is the lacking pesto. A lot of people think he tastes good, but, those people haven't tasted the superior ones often enough yet. Once they do, they'll only order well-bodied pesto, not the most popular one in Tesco.

Another good comparison would be popular, effective, every day use olive oil from Tesco, what's wrong with it? Nothing to the majority of people.... but go to a real olive oil country, and show them this... and they'll be baffled. Where is the nuance and depth to the flavour? Why is it priced so high when it's just a blend of sub-par olives? 

Lukaku is a lacking Italian meal. Belotti at least has some chilli.

[The Skipper 20,609]

2 hours ago, Clockwork said:

I don't believe Marina decides how much Chelsea can pay for a player. She negotiates, she doesn't decide how much Chelsea can pay for a player. The board as a group decides how much they are willing to pay for a player. And it is her job to negotiate that aligns with those views. 

Of course. Haven't said otherwise. In fact, I've been saying for years that it's the board as a collective, not the manager or Emenalo or Marina or whoever who decide that. My point is more to do with how we don't seem to close deals as effectively as we did under Gourlay - and in my opinion the negotiator can have an effect on that. 

[bluephoenix 1,131]

Wow interesting that Mourinho kicks him out of Chelsea and then a year later goes behind him.

 

[The Skipper 20,609]

1 hour ago, Barbara said:

And big companies have their executives aligned with their philosophy... So the change from him to her may coincide with the change of philosophy. Saying the problem is who negotiates the deals doesn't make a lot of sense... A club sets a price tag to a player we are interested, it's not entirely up to Marina to reach the value.
Only here I ever seen someone criticising who discuss contracts as opposed to who decides the targets and the plans B, C, D...

I never said Marina decides how much we spend on a player at all, please don't assume that. Maybe a change of philosophy is the bigger reason but I still believe that we were more effective when Gourlay was leading negotiations. You can't say that the negotiator or representative doesn't have any sort of influence as to how a deal concludes. 

[akgw13 867]

16 minutes ago, Leif said:

Have you ever had 3 different pestos in your cupboard, all from expensive companies, all with loads of 5 star reviews online... only to try them each, day after another, to discover that one of them...is absolutely bonkers - in a bad way?
Where is the nuance? Why are your reviews so good? Is it because you appeal to a different (larger) demographic, where the others are made with the purest, traditional recipes, for purists?

Lukaku is the lacking pesto. A lot of people think he tastes good, but, those people haven't tasted the superior ones often enough yet. Once they do, they'll only order well-bodied pesto, not the most popular one in Tesco.

Another good comparison would be popular, effective, every day use olive oil from Tesco, what's wrong with it? Nothing to the majority of people.... but go to a real olive oil country, and show them this... and they'll be baffled. Where is the nuance and depth to the flavour? Why is it priced so high when it's just a blend of sub-par olives? 

Lukaku is a lacking Italian meal. Belotti at least has some chilli.

hahaha alright that description is pretty funny, I like that one. 

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

I'm worried now about the whole transfer business we're supposed to be doing. Seriously worried. We've been utterly wank so far. No other way around it.

Lukaku's goal scoring record is elite in exactly the same competition we play in for a clearly inferior team. The fact he has a questionable first touch and technique isn't grounds for some of the absurd criticisms of him I've read on the internet. Diego Costa isn't exactly the most technically brilliant striker either and we made it work but so many people are losing their minds over Lukaku. Okay, he can't press the opposition like Costa can but Lukaku is better in the air and at shielding the ball.

I've expressed my feeling towards Morata elsewhere. I like him, and I can see how his qualities will be better suited to the way we play generally and the way teams play against us, but Lukaku has more goals than Morata has league games played. 

Belotti has had one good season and I'm not that confident in the transition from Serie A to Premier league especially for strikers.

I read Ducker on twitter suggesting Conte won't be happy as Lukaku was his primary target (accoring to the Telegraph). What are our plans now?

 

[oldportblue 547]

2 minutes ago, MrExcalibur100 said:

I read Ducker on twitter suggesting Conte won't be happy as Lukaku was his primary target (accoring to the Telegraph). What are our plans now?

 

I agree fully with the rest of your post but as to this part, has it been confirmed that MU's bid is accepted and that we won't match it? Not 100% sure but AFAIK, it hasn't. We could still match the bid I feel

[Special Juan 28,141]

Maybe next time we can be in their quickly to bid instead of fucking about like a load of amateurs. 

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

Seems we did try to sign him, but knowing that they will not lowering their asking price to the reasonable amount, we moved on.

[Henrique 9,133]

1 hour ago, Fernando said:

Manchester United have had a £75m offer for Everton's Romelu Lukaku accepted. How long has this deal been in the making?

I was told this deal has been weeks in the making. It isn't just something they've swooped on today or this week.

 

Jose Mourinho gave executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward his transfer wish list at the start of May and there were four options for each of the four or five positions he wanted to improve. What I'm told is that, from the word go, Lukaku was the number one target for the striker berth.

I think everybody else assumed Lukaku going to Chelsea was a done deal and that allowed them to go about their work under the radar, without anybody even thinking it was possible.

However, Lukaku told my colleague Gary Cotterill last month he knew where he was going, and it seems like the deal was at a fairly advanced stage even then.

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/15115/10939471/evertons-romelu-lukaku-to-man-utd-big-transfer-deal-explained

 

We probably was never after Lukaku in the first place.....

That won't help Conte, since it was even more stupid to kick the ass of your main striker when you are not even after another top replacement. 

[oldportblue 547]

2 minutes ago, RoyalBlues said:

Seems we did try to sign him, but knowing that they will not lowering their asking price to the reasonable amount, we moved on.

This may be but I'm not sure we moved on, simply for the reason that any of the other "top" strikers available would also go for an astronomical fee (belotti reportedly 100M, morata 80M, aubameyang 70M etc, and all those without the proven PL goal scoring record). So since this is the case, it wouldn't make sense to move on to others because the same problem would arise (unless, the worst case scenario is true and we will end up with a cheap solution of llorente and michy, but personally don't see that happening)

[Jype 6,398]

Just now, RoyalBlues said:

Seems we did try to sign him, but knowing that they will not lowering their asking price to the reasonable amount, we moved on.

Nah, don't believe so.

The club must have thought United were getting Morata and because of that there'd be no competition for Lukaku's signature so they were dithering to try lower Everton's asking price. It's still early in the window so to save even five million by taking things slow might be worth it if they were still sure about getting their man in the end. Then boom, in comes United to hijack with a bid good enough for Everton and it's done in record time much to the embarrassment of the Chelsea board.

If the club really 'moved on' as you say, surely we'd have heard something about the next target but until today it was all Lukaku and no one else.

[DDA 9,938]

1 hour ago, 1chelsea said:

Who would you rather prefer lacazette or Bolleti? Be honest


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I use to cratch my head, wondering why a top club had never gone for Lacazette. After watching him, more and more I feel he would struggle in big games for a top club. I don't think Lacazette has that wow factor whereas that special feeling is something I definitely get watching Boletti. Boletti has a real presence about him. So for me, Boletti over Lacazette any-day-of-the-week. 

[DDA 9,938]

10 minutes ago, Henrique said:

That won't help Conte, since it was even more stupid to kick the ass of your main striker when you are not even after another top replacement. 

It wasn't stupid to kick Costa at all. It would have been stupid if he had kept him for another season of sulking and bitching about wanting to leave. Fuck that, I stand by Contes decision to kick Costa 100%.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

Just now, oldportblue said:

This may be but I'm not sure we moved on, simply for the reason that any of the other "top" strikers available would also go for an astronomical fee (belotti reportedly 100M, morata 80M, aubameyang 70M etc, and all those without the proven PL goal scoring record). So since this is the case, it wouldn't make sense to move on to others because the same problem would arise (unless, the worst case scenario is true and we will end up with a cheap solution of llorente and michy, but personally don't see that happening)

If the club willing to go all out since the beginning, I believe we are the first club to meet the asking price, since we're after him early. Now that we know MU who meet it first, I assume we were back off. Yes there is still a chance, but hard to see we will meet up their asking price after this.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

13 minutes ago, Jype said:

Nah, don't believe so.

The club must have thought United were getting Morata and because of that there'd be no competition for Lukaku's signature so they were dithering to try lower Everton's asking price. It's still early in the window so to save even five million by taking things slow might be worth it if they were still sure about getting their man in the end. Then boom, in comes United to hijack with a bid good enough for Everton and it's done in record time much to the embarrassment of the Chelsea board.

If the club really 'moved on' as you say, surely we'd have heard something about the next target but until today it was all Lukaku and no one else.

Yes, no one else. But no reliable story about Lukaku as well! All articles made up by media suggesting he is 'close', but in reality not. We will never know what happened behind the scene, basically just pure assumptions.

[oldportblue 547]

2 minutes ago, RoyalBlues said:

If the club willing to go all out since the beginning, I believe we are the first club to meet the asking price, since we're after him early. Now that we know MU who meet it first, I assume we were back off. Yes there is still a chance, but hard to see we will meet up their asking price after this.

I think Jype's post above address this issue pretty well i.e. in the beginning, we thought we were the only ones in for him so we took our time to try to get the price down and now, out of nowhere, MU has put in a significant bid. If we really want him, we have to match it now or else he'll be gone to MU and I wouldn't be surprised if the board held a meeting today to discuss whether we will or we won't match their bid

[Georgy 439]

Could be worse for us. I noticed the Utd fans have become really delusional in the last 2 years. On cafe there is already a thread about Lukaku's potential shirt LOL If I didn't knew it's Lukaku i'd be tempted to say they are about to sign Messi. Hilarious bunch. 

[Jype 6,398]

Just now, RoyalBlues said:

Yes, no one else. But no reliable story about Lukaku as well! All articles made up by media suggesting he is 'close', but in reality not.

Enough reports about the club and Conte's interest in Lukaku to make me believe he was the number one target all along. Matt Law of the Telegraph has been saying it all this time and if there's one reporter I trust with news about Chelsea it's him.

For a few weeks now I've been saying Lukaku deal wasn't as 'close' as many seemed to think because there were zero reliable reports of a transfer fee being agreed or even about negotiations taking place between the clubs but he was still a top target, no doubt about that. The board members were just too busy jerking each other off to do anything about it.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

7 minutes ago, oldportblue said:

I think Jype's post above address this issue pretty well i.e. in the beginning, we thought we were the only ones in for him so we took our time to try to get the price down and now, out of nowhere, MU has put in a significant bid. If we really want him, we have to match it now or else he'll be gone to MU and I wouldn't be surprised if the board held a meeting today to discuss whether we will or we won't match their bid

 

1 minute ago, Jype said:

Enough reports about the club and Conte's interest in Lukaku to make me believe he was the number one target all along. Matt Law of the Telegraph has been saying it all this time and if there's one reporter I trust with news about Chelsea it's him.

For a few weeks now I've been saying Lukaku deal wasn't as 'close' as many seemed to think because there were zero reliable reports of a transfer fee being agreed or even about negotiations taking place between the clubs but he was still a top target, no doubt about that. The board members were just too busy jerking each other off to do anything about it.

Maybe. But who knows maybe we are not even made a move for any strikers yet. Maybe to solve Costa situation first.