Romelu Lukaku

[ZAPHOD2319 4,517]

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

[Tomo 21,733]

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 16,921]

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 29,018]

‘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 29,018]

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

[King Kante 1,500]

3 hours ago, Vesper said:

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)

At this point, I'd take Paul Furlong in exchange for Lukaku. 

[Alabama 1,992]

9 hours ago, Vesper said:

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)

Unfortunately he is injured right now...Federico Chiesa I hope a desperate club like PSG can come with a bid like £80m above for Lukaku and we replace him with Chiesa or we take a risk on Anthony of Ajax though we have been linked with him in the past...

[King Kante 1,500]

3 hours ago, Alabama said:

Unfortunately he is injured right now...Federico Chiesa I hope a desperate club like PSG can come with a bid like £80m above for Lukaku and we replace him with Chiesa or we take a risk on Anthony of Ajax though we have been linked with him in the past...

Not sure about this guy, his uncle told me he doesn't have the makings of a varsity athlete. 

[Alabama 1,992]

1 hour ago, King Kante said:

Not sure about this guy, his uncle told me he doesn't have the makings of a varsity athlete. 

Anthony?

[Vesper 29,018]

5 hours ago, Alabama said:

Unfortunately he is injured right now...Federico Chiesa I hope a desperate club like PSG can come with a bid like £80m above for Lukaku and we replace him with Chiesa or we take a risk on Anthony of Ajax though we have been linked with him in the past...

Chiesa is out until September or October or so, he destroyed his ACL, so no go on him until summer 2023 (zero chance I would buy him in January 2023 after just 2 or 3months back)

[King Kante 1,500]

1 hour ago, King Kante said:

Not sure about this guy, his uncle told me he doesn't have the makings of a varsity athlete. 

It's a saying from The Sopranos series. 

[robsblubot 3,529]

wrote thread

Edited February 9, 2022 by robsblubot

[OneMoSalah 8,784]

On 05/02/2022 at 17:48, MoroccanBlue said:

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

Say what you want about Havertz and Werner, but neither of them had this run of games with nothing to show for it. 
 

Pathetic from Tuchel. 

100% inaccurate. But its Lukaku so I can get why its very much anyone but him would do. But again Werner went on like two runs of 10+ games not scoring in his first season. Or something incredibly stupid along those lines. Maybe he had some “movement” in those games as many people alludes to during that run but unfortunately, movement doesn’t win football matches at the of the day.

End of the day every attacking signing we’ve made (Lukaku, Werner, Havertz, Ziyech) in the last 18 months, have struggled to inspire confidence and would say more importantly, consistency.

I think that video interview may have put the nails in our season, never mind Rom’s Chelsea career. We seem deflated. I know we’ve got this CWC final and Carabao Cup final but we’ve been very very flat and look very deflated for a good while now.

I know people will say we had a decent front 3 and system last season but lets not forget those players, when they’ve played this season (albeit not together anywhere near as often - couldn’t tell you the amount of times they have) have done very little individually (Mount has an alright G&A though to be fair) which is even more worrying because based on their levels, its not as throwing those 3 back together for the foreseeable may necessarily make a difference either. 

Edited February 9, 2022 by OneMoSalah

[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, OneMoSalah said:

100% inaccurate. But its Lukaku so I can get why its very much anyone but him would do. But again Werner went on like two runs of 10+ games not scoring in his first season. Or something incredibly stupid along those lines. Maybe he had some “movement” in those games as many people alludes to during that run but unfortunately, movement doesn’t win football matches at the of the day.

Even when Werner went on a goal drought or struggled to score goals, he helped compensate by providing assists along the way at the very least. Lukaku's assist count this season still stands at ZERO and we're in bloody February! If he's not scoring (tap ins), he's contributing nothing and this is a 100 million player!

This isn't about Werner but more about the movement factor. You like to shit on the argument but you seem to ignore the fact that movement helps to disorganize defences, thus leading to opportunities being created. Right now, we literally have a statue upfront in Lukaku who doesn't move about and becomes super easy for opposing teams to pick up and defend against. 

[NikkiCFC 8,048]

But we are scoring more goals this season than last.

58 last season in 38 PL games.

48 in 24 this season.

There is really not much positive you can say about our attack with Rom or no Rom.

Very simple. Werner, Havertz, Pulisic, Lukaku are all playing better for NTs. Why?

[NikkiCFC 8,048]

Giroud with another brace in a derby.

[laura90 556]

On 06/02/2022 at 09:20, Jase said:

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. 

Sorry I have just seen your reply. I don't consider Tuchel innocent, obviously I can't but I firmly believe had it been only him making the shots who would be signed Lukaku wouldn't even been here. Had he been told he has 100 mil to spend he would have spent it on wingback and midfielder  or CB probably.

This club spent entire summer generating funds for Lukaku. Waited to sell Cats abuser and Tammy to sign Lukaku. Decision about Lukaku was made early and it was known for everybody,  including Tuchel. Once signing was imminent Tuchel could have tried to come to an agreement with him on how to use him in the team. 

It was his job to get along with board decision. He is paid for that. Could he persuade them to spend 180 mill on one player, who will stay there long after he is gone?  Not in a mil. years. Record transfer, record wages. It's is board decision. Klopp would maybe give Salah 500 000 a week but that salary is board decision.
AS I said before, Marina believed that one Lukaku is enough to cover wingback, midfielder, CB and attacking player.  WE can have mediocre players there if we have Lukaku. Just like Hazard in those days enabled us to have mediocre players in various positions. No need to invest further. 

Had he been exclusively Tuchel signing Tuchel would have let Lukaku to take penalties when goals dried up  ( Just like Conte did, 17 / 18 goals in Italian league isn't that impressive)  and wouldn't bench him ever, leading to interview and manic eating  of fast food we are seeing.