🇧🇪 Romelu Lukaku

[Jase 43,479]

14 hours ago, MoroccanBlue said:

5 games on the trot he’s played a full 90. Now 120 minutes today and still nothing. 

Not exactly. He's started the last 7 games in all competitions and completed the full 90 in 5 of those games (he was taken off at HT for a rest against Chesterfield in one of the other 2 games).

[Jase 43,479]

7 hours ago, laura90 said:

Tuchel wasn't here 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and we still were linked. Wishfull thinking it was Tuchel. 

It's no secret that the club make the call on signings and while I don't know if Tuchel would have been able to persuade them to do otherwise, it's worth noting that Tuchel himself also went along with the Lukaku signing (he mentioned he spoke with Tuchel before joining). So, Tuchel isn't exactly innocent here. 

[Vesper 30,177]

Lukaku is overweight, sluggish, slow AF (almost no burst speed lately), beyond wuthless on defence/pressing, disinterested, and throws a strop far too often. He never should have been purchased.

A right fucking proper £180m (fees + 5 years average salary in toto) nightmare.

🤬

[Laylabelle 9,535]

1 minute ago, Vesper said:

Lukaku is overweight, sluggish, slow AF (almost no burst speed lately), beyond wuthless on defence/pressing, disinterested, and throws a strop far too often. He never should have been purchased.

A right fucking proper £180m (fees + 5 years average salary in toto) nightmare.

🤬

This is what I mean! Why couldn't someone else have brought him and we could he all hahhaah they're really stupid hahahhaha. Except nooo we signed him..for stupid amounts of money..again! And hasn't paid off...again...

[Vesper 30,177]

25 minutes ago, Laylabelle said:

This is what I mean! Why couldn't someone else have brought him and we could he all hahhaah they're really stupid hahahhaha. Except nooo we signed him..for stupid amounts of money..again! And hasn't paid off...again...

I will have to someday go back and re-calculate the grand totals (as some that I was calculating reduced sales for will and have left on frees/vastly reduced (from even my lowball tallies) amounts, plus potential losses on frees for big guns like AC and Rudiger, etc), but we are now damn near approaching 2/3rds to 3/4ers of a BILLION quid tossed away, starting in 2016/2017, in poor buys, bad sales, refused sales, refused buys (where we may pay vast amounts more or will never, near to medium term get the players in and thus have to settle), and cocked up contractual management.

Serious amounts of shit-away dosh. Combine that with monies lost due to Covid, and the numbers are coming up on 1 billion pounds sterling.

PLUS no new stadium, and thus at least £50-75 million lost per anum in future forward revenue projections, not to mention the loss of physical plant-enabled pulling power in the transfer market that comes along with us being the only top 25 or so club in Europe with either no new (or vastly expanded/renovated) stadium either already being used or coming online in the near to medium term future.

And yet no heads have rolled.

Edited February 6, 2022 by Vesper

[Fulham Broadway 17,313]

Emile Heskey reincarnated

[Vesper 30,177]

17 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Emile Heskey reincarnated

September 1, 2001, 10 days before the world changed, we put the old bovver boots to the Germans in München, with Heskey scoring the last of our 5 goals

[Fulham Broadway 17,313]

9 minutes ago, Vesper said:

September 1, 2001, 10 days before the world changed, we put the old bovver boots to the Germans in München, with Heskey scoring the last of our 5 goals

Remember the media going apeshit about that -like England had won a war 🙄

At least we got Ballack five years later  👍

 

[Blues Forever 1,232]

34 minutes ago, Vesper said:

September 1, 2001, 10 days before the world changed, we put the old bovver boots to the Germans in München, with Heskey scoring the last of our 5 goals

Not hard considering Germany only have 2 world class players in Kahn and Ballack at that time.

[Vesper 30,177]

22 minutes ago, Blues Forever said:

Not hard considering Germany only have 2 world class players in Kahn and Ballack at that time.

Germany with Ballack (and do not forget Miroslav Klose) may have well won the WC 10 months later if Ballack had not been suspended by that ridiculous yellow card rule (now changed, partly because of that) after a professional foul in the semi-final. Losing Ballack fucked up pretty much everything about their shape and flow v Brasil.

 

[Blues Forever 1,232]

13 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Germany with Ballack (and do not forget Miroslav Klose) may have well won the WC 10 months later if Ballack had not been suspended by that ridiculous yellow card rule (now changed, partly because of that) after a professional foul in the semi-final. Losing Ballack fucked up pretty much everything about their shape and flow v Brasil.

 

Maybe although that Brazil team was still far superior than Germany.

[Vesper 30,177]

26 minutes ago, Blues Forever said:

Maybe although that Brazil team was still far superior than Germany.

yes, Brasil was just loaded that year

22    GK    Rogério Ceni    22 January 1973 (aged 29)    12    Brazil São Paulo
1    GK    Marcos    4 August 1973 (aged 28)    15    Brazil Palmeiras
12    GK    Dida    7 October 1973 (aged 28)    49    Brazil Corinthians
2    DF    Cafu (c)    7 June 1970 (aged 31)    103    Italy Roma
6    DF    Roberto Carlos    10 April 1973 (aged 29)    84    Spain Real Madrid
16    DF    Júnior    20 June 1973 (aged 28)    12    Italy Parma
13    DF    Juliano Belletti    20 June 1976 (aged 25)    10    Brazil São Paulo
5    DF    Edmílson    10 July 1976 (aged 25)    12    France Lyon
4    DF    Roque Júnior    31 August 1976 (aged 25)    17    Italy Milan
3    DF    Lúcio    8 May 1978 (aged 24)    15    Germany Bayer Leverkusen
14    DF    Ânderson Polga    9 February 1979 (aged 23)    5    Brazil Grêmio
10    MF    Rivaldo    19 April 1972 (aged 30)    58    Spain Barcelona
19    MF    Juninho    22 February 1973 (aged 29)    43    England Middlesbrough
18    MF    Vampeta    13 March 1974 (aged 28)    36    Brazil Corinthians
7    MF    Ricardinho    23 May 1976 (aged 26)    3    Brazil Corinthians
8    MF    Gilberto Silva    7 October 1976 (aged 25)    6    Brazil Atlético Mineiro
15    MF    Kléberson    19 June 1979 (aged 22)    5    Brazil Atlético Paranaense
11    MF    Ronaldinho    21 March 1980 (aged 22)    24    France Paris Saint-Germain
23    MF    Kaká    22 April 1982 (aged 20)    2    Brazil São Paulo
20    FW    Edílson    17 September 1971 (aged 30)    17    Brazil Cruzeiro
21    FW    Luizão    14 November 1975 (aged 26)    8    Brazil Grêmio
9    FW    Ronaldo    22 September 1976 (aged 25)    56    Italy Inter Milan
17    FW    Denílson    24 August 1977 (aged 24)    53    Spain Real Betis

 

Edited February 6, 2022 by Vesper

[King Kante 1,643]

On 05/02/2022 at 21:28, milka said:

meanwhile

 

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

One duel and no dribbles won against Plymouth? 

Where are all those people that thought he was good/been transformed in Italy? 

Absolute donkey of a player. 

Edited February 7, 2022 by King Kante

[MoroccanBlue 5,382]

Surely the board aren't this daft and will try to offload him in the summer? Surely? He was pocketed by Plymouth?!!?

Christ even if Atletico or PSG somehow come to our rescue, you'd think this would be another hard lesson learned from the board to not pursue targets merely on name alone. But it won't. 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,818]

Who would buy him for anywhere near the price we paid?

[Tomo 21,751]

1 hour ago, MoroccanBlue said:

Surely the board aren't this daft and will try to offload him in the summer? Surely? He was pocketed by Plymouth?!!?

Christ even if Atletico or PSG somehow come to our rescue, you'd think this would be another hard lesson learned from the board to not pursue targets merely on name alone. But it won't. 

Looking back at it signing him in 2011 made no sense either. We were looking at nimble technical players and until Jose returned trying to build a team around those ideals, even the one's that didn't work (Marin) made sense in theory.

He would have looked just as out of place in a team involving Hazard, KDB, Oscar, Mata and young Azpi as he does in this one, if not more so.

Edited February 7, 2022 by Tomo

[Alabama 1,992]

Lukaku for Felix...

Atletico please....

[Fulham Broadway 17,313]

5 hours ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

Who would buy him for anywhere near the price we paid?

Exactly - but we do have history with these kind of strikers -Sutton, Sheva, Fernando the Wonder Horse....

 

[Vesper 30,177]

‘He wants to go’: BBC pundit thinks 28-year-old Chelsea player will push for a transfer in the summer

https://www.thechelseachronicle.com/pundit-view/he-wants-to-go-bbc-pundit-thinks-28-year-old-Chelsea-player-will-push-for-a-transfer-in-the-summer/

Nigel Reo-Coker foresaw a change of scenery away from Chelsea for Romelu Lukaku once the campaign concludes.

Speaking on the BBC Football Daily podcast, the former Aston Villa midfielder suggested that Lukaku will potentially look to leave in the summer.

Up until just over a month ago, this prediction would’ve seemed ridiculous.

Although the striker had struggled in front of goal, coupled with a lengthy absence through injury, the idea of him calling time early on his club-record return to Stamford Bridge simply didn’t enter anyone’s thinking.

However, this all immediately changed after the 28-year-old’s interview with Sky Italia came to the surface.

In the conversation, which was recorded and published in December, Lukaku seemed to hit out at Thomas Tuchel’s tactics and hinted and wanting to re-join Inter Milan.

Obviously, the Belgian was struck down by a wave of criticism from all corners of the profession.

Tuchel dropped the centre-forward for Chelsea’s crucial Premier League against Liverpool.

Lukaku then issued a public video apology to supporters of the Champions League holders, yet the damage had already been done.

Lukaku looks like a different man

Since these damming statements came to light, he has only scored once across all competitions, at home to Chesterfield in the FA Cup.

Something is still not right in the player who was dubbed the missing piece in Tuchel’s league title-challenging puzzle.  
“It’s never going to be the same. We are never going to know what’s happened, unless you are in that room with Tuchel and Lukaku at the training ground,” said Reo-Coker.

“That relationship can’t be mended. I think, for me, he wants to go and it’s difficult because it’s going to reflect on his football.

“He already believes the team don’t play to his strengths. So, it’s a difficult one. You can already see that he hasn’t really been the same.

“We are not seeing the same Lukaku who was literally destroying, manhandling Serie A players for Inter Milan.

“For me, that’s more of a mental thing and that’s going to be a tough thing where Chelsea are going to have to revaluate everything at the end of the season.”

Who fires first?

Now the drama has unfolded and sort of settled, seeing Lukaku walk away from the project at the end of the season wouldn’t be that much of a surprise.

Especially if he did move back to Inter, the team that helped him fall in love with football again.

Selling the expensive recruit for anything less than the original £97.5m (Sky Sports) fee will not be in Roman Abramovich’s remit.

However, reimbursing Lukaku’s transfer cost is highly unlikely, therefore one of the parties must budge on their standpoints.

Chelsea as an organisation usually win this in-house battle.

[Vesper 30,177]

5 hours ago, Alabama said:

Lukaku for Felix...

Atletico please....

Felix would get bullied at CF in the EPL, he is not good at hold-up play

the only players on AM who interest me are

Jan Oblak   (is having an off year so far, and is so not the worth £107m release claise)
Marcos Llorente    (we do not need him, and he is also having an off year)
José María Giménez  (injuries have always worried me, and his play was never the same after Godin left) 
Rodrigo de Paul (see Llorente, minus the off year)
Renan Lodi   (as a backup LB)

Edited February 7, 2022 by Vesper