Romelu Lukaku

[Madmax 9,219]

Because Lukaku not the n2 CF and he knows it.

Why not? If Mourinho can play Ba ahead of Torres, he can play Lukaku ahead of Torres, provided Lukaku is willing to drop the attitude and back his talk by taking his chances.

[Korea 734]

Why not? If Mourinho can play Ba ahead of Torres, he can play Lukaku ahead of Torres, provided Lukaku is willing to drop the attitude and back his talk by taking his chances.

because ba, torres or eto are all better holdup players than lukaku.

You even saw it at the world cup, his holdup play is worse than Torres and that's pretty bad. What was his aerial win percentage? He lost out to a kid from the french league....

Lukaku being the number 2 means he would start a significant amount of games, which I really doubt Jose gives him

[didierforever 7,349]

Romelu wants to go himself... Why is that so hard for you to accept? You should know that at CFC we don't keep players that don't want to be here.

Yes, I'd rather cash in on a player that doesn't want to be here and get £10-15m extra now rather than hoping that he hopefully signs a new deal next season. We as a club don't want to be in the situation where the player has all the power.

What has Romelu even done at CFC for you to say he deserves that sort of power?

and where did u get to know that he wants to go? did u talk to him personally? as far i know, just yesterday or something he changed his bio to chelsea.

i would rather look at the betterment of the club as this season is vital. us not winning the PL would be considered a failure. another trophy less season will definitely mean jose getting the boot and making us go back to the managerial merry-go-round.

and what power are u talking about? if u actually "believe" that he wants to leave, then we are keeping him against his "wish". where are we giving lukaku the power?

[Stats 7,059]

This is what really surprises me about Lukaku. For a supposedly 'intelligent' guy, why can he not grasp this simple concept? Chelsea's no.2 striker will play a heck of a lot of games, some of them on the biggest stages the football world has to offer. Why can he not recognise this, hunker down and strive to make that spot his own and then take it from there? As things stand his only competition for that spot is the biggest failure in English football; surely he should be absolutely raring to go?

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

[Viper22 2,418]

Jesus. Everyone flying off the handle here a little bit. Tbh with the deals we've done over the last few transfer windows and especially this one I will trust the board in whatever decision they make. I admit I will be dubious if we have Costa/Torres/Didier but if that's what Jose believes he needs then I will trust him.

Trust in Jose, trust in the board people.

[Madmax 9,219]

because ba, torres or eto are all better holdup players than lukaku.

Lukaku being the number 2 means he would start a significant amount of games, which I really doubt Jose gives him

Mourinho isn't a one-dimensional manager and surely just that can't be a consideration for him. Maybe Mourinho doesn't rate Lukaku, which is his prerogative as a manager and if that's the case then we have to go along with it, whatever our take on Lukaku's abilities. However, you see what his constant yapping has done here is that it's given Mourinho a ready excuse to not be even-handed the moment Lukaku falters (rightly or wrongly).

[Toli 977]

It's amazing how a club like Man City can have four top class strikers but still manage to make all of them content. All four of them better than Lukaku. I know Pellegrini plays with two strikers but still he can only play with two at a time. We shouldn't have problems with having multiple quality options to play as a striker. Costa will certainly be our best striker next season but I don't like how the tag "second" striker is placed on the next guy. Dzeko for instance started the season as Man City's third striker but began to outperform Negredo and became second choice and a starting XI partner to Aguero. At the end of the day every player still has to prove himself to the manager from scratch.

This is what vexes me about the Lukaku thing. Of course we won't know for sure what happened behind closed doors till leaves. There was a rumour that the club never contacted him even once during his second spell at Everton. Then he says this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2646047/Romelu-Lukaku-insists-wants-stay-Chelsea-despite-uncertainty.html

It's either the kid is bi-polar or the club are trying to force him out of the club for whatever reason.

City are playing with 2 strikers while we are playing with one. thats the difference. they have 2 strikers per position...thats not much. we have 3 for 1 (if lukaku stays). Also Dzeko did want to leave City at a time and only due to Negredos bad shape he came back in to the sheet..otherwise he would have left them by now. And Jovetic isnt happy neither. And Negredo still might be sold.

@Viper trust in your own brain. You dont have to be a genius to know that with Drogba, Torres and Costa we are literally going in to the season with 1!!! good striker. Torres is shit and we know this...nothing new. Mou basically admitted it by himself during last season. Drogba is way past his prime. If you think that going with 1 striker in to a season with 50+ matches (if everything goes well) is enough, than you can forget about it.

[Pizy 18,430]

Lukaku has said numerous times that he's modeling himself after Rooney or CR7 and wants to be the main man and undisputed, first choice striker. Even if he's told that he'd get plenty of playing time here that just doesn't seem enough to satisfy him.

[Madmax 9,219]

Is he no.2 though? He should be but will he? Maybe not because there is still Torres

Well you have to hope and expect so, I suppose, because then the only justification that's left open for not playing him is that he's bowing to some sort of pressure from above to play Torres or that he has something personal against Lukaku. You'd have to count those two situations out because a) he's already shown what he thinks about Torres by playing Ba ahead of him and b ) because people like Mourinho don't get to the top of their profession by holding such petty grudges.

[The only place to be 11,313]

It's amazing how a club like Man City can have four top class strikers but still manage to make all of them content.

How many matches did Aguero and Jovetic miss through injury?

Jovetic had an injury in pre-season and hamstring and calf problems throughout. Aguero had a calf injury in December and the calf and hamstring problems right up to the World Cup.

Hard to moan about not playing when you're in the physio room.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Is he no.2 though? He should be

Um, why? What has Lukaku actually done in a Chelsea shirt?

He should definitely get a chance to fight for a spot, and HE GOT THAT LAST YEAR BUT ASKED TO LEAVE.

One more time for the people asleep at the back of the class.

HE RECEIVED A CHANCE AT THIS CLUB AND ASKED TO LEAVE.

Now someone convince me that Jose will respect that attitude. That's Jose Mourinho. This guy

[Stats 7,059]

Um, why? What has Lukaku actually done in a Chelsea shirt?

He should definitely get a chance to fight for a spot, and HE GOT THAT LAST YEAR BUT ASKED TO LEAVE.

One more time for the people asleep at the back of the class.

HE RECEIVED A CHANCE AT THIS CLUB AND ASKED TO LEAVE.

Now someone convince me that Jose will respect that attitude. That's Jose Mourinho. This guy

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?

[The only place to be 11,313]

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?

He's earned a chance to fight for a spot here. That's it. In fact he had that chance last season and received chances but then asked to leave.

Lukaku has not proven anything at this club yet. All he's shown is that he can score 15 goals at a mid-table club. Great.

So did Demba Ba.

So did Grant Holt.

So did Clint Dempsey.

So did DJ Campbell.

So did Peter Odemwingie.

So did Darren Bent.

So did Gabriel Agbonlahor.

So did Kevin Davies.

So did Benjani.

So did Mark Viduka.

So did Marlon Harewood.

So did Juan Pablo Angel.

So did Yakubu.

Your firm point makes no sense because I'm not disputing Mourinho let him leave. Mourinho would probably let any player who requested a transfer in the bitch fashion Lukaku did leave. Do you know why?

Because quitting like that is a bitch move. Can you name one other player who Mourinho has kept around after he requested a transfer because there was too much competition for his spot?

[The Skipper 20,593]

and where did u get to know that he wants to go? did u talk to him personally? as far i know, just yesterday or something he changed his bio to chelsea.

i would rather look at the betterment of the club as this season is vital. us not winning the PL would be considered a failure. another trophy less season will definitely mean jose getting the boot and making us go back to the managerial merry-go-round.

and what power are u talking about? if u actually "believe" that he wants to leave, then we are keeping him against his "wish". where are we giving lukaku the power?

Have you just been turning a blind eye to what he's been saying over the last few weeks? He said it himself mate. Have you completely ignored this? People are not imagining things when they say Romelu wants to leave.

He said this just before the WC:

"You know Chelsea: every year they buy a new top striker," he said.

"I remember me coming into the dressing room last year and seeing Samuel Eto'o and Demba Ba and going: 'Whoah! What's happening here?'

"But no problem. Many clubs are interested in me and at this stage I have to look to myself.

"I have to play a good World Cup. That's very interesting for all the players looking for a transfer, and I must be one of them. Chelsea know my point of view."

Right there from the horses mouth.

And also, I don't know why you are trying to reinforce to me that Lukaku would be useful to us. I've said countless of times in this thread that ideally, Romelu would be great as our number two option - but the problem clearly is that he wants to go. I feel like I'm repeating myself because you just won't accept that.

I find it incredible how anyone would think that selling Lukaku can somehow lead to Jose getting sacked? How does selling Romelu even equal to us definitely not winning the PL? How did you even come up with that hypothesis? Ifs and buts... I can equally say to you, what if Diego Costa scores 10 goals in his first 5 games and stays completely injury free and on form for the whole season thus severely limiting Romelu's overall chances... Do you think Romelu will be happy with that and think, "Yeah, let me sign a new contract now"? That's just a naive way of thinking about it.

I'm repeating myself - but you know what would be for the betterment of the club? Selling a player that doesn't want to be here at the right time, instead of running his contract down to one year thus severely reducing his value and leaving all the power in the players hands. Then use that money to reinvest into someone who does want to be here. Simple.

I don't think you'll ever see it that way though.

[Peace. 4,352]

We don't need the money... So we should let Lukaku walk for like £10m next season?

I have always thought that this argument of "we do not need the money" is pretty simpleton. I mean, if we do not need money, then we should call back Paris in order to partially refund them, because we do not really need these 50m euros ; etc... It is like when people proudly say "we do not sell our best players because we do not need money bla bla bla" — we did not think a second before selling Mata and Luiz.

It can also be applied to rich people. They do no longer need to earn money, yet they take it... It is like this that you become wealthy. And, if tomorrow i tell you "here's the deal, I give you 200 bucks today or 100 next day, what do you choose ?" — your answer will be pretty obvious. I could give just out of my head another twenty examples, but I guess I do not need to go there.

——————————

And anyway. As you say, he pretty much wants to leave our club — and before someone ask if we have talked to him to know such a thing : you do not need to be Noam Chomsky to understand that when a player start to publicly say "clubs are interested in me" (in the fashion he did), it means that at the very least he considers to go elsewhere.

So, with that knowledge, the best thing for us is to look to get the more money out of him. It is not like we desperately need him and thus should say goodbye to a huge amount of money, let's say like Dortmund with the Polish.

[LAB 1,030]

You guys make it such a big deal. Mourinho will simply not tolerate that behaviour. He can go play the star striker wherever the hell he wants just as we cash in the max possible amount of money right now.

[Diego Kwsta 96]

I'm not suggesting we have four strikers ourselves. We can have three like last season. My point is that Lukaku's whining has created this misconceived notion that Diego Costa is going to play every game and that the next guy is a no-hoper who is relegated to the "second" striker status, which is untrue. My other point was that if our board falls for that and we start the season with a strike force of Costa, Torres and 36 year old player/coach Drogba, we will struggle to achieve our goals, despite our other signings. We definitely need a forward of the level of a Firmino or Lavezzi to come in to replace Lukaku.

I get your point..What I'm saying it's that it's difficult to have so many good players for 1 position.

Well it is true that Costa will be the number one guy and everybody knows that,you need to feel the essence of the transfer.Everybody else will be second choice.

Also Im not sure that Lavezzi is as good a striker as he is a winger/inside forward....And Firmino???Really???

[The Mak 4,459]

and where did u get to know that he wants to go? did u talk to him personally? as far i know, just yesterday or something he changed his bio to chelsea.

i would rather look at the betterment of the club as this season is vital. us not winning the PL would be considered a failure. another trophy less season will definitely mean jose getting the boot and making us go back to the managerial merry-go-round.

and what power are u talking about? if u actually "believe" that he wants to leave, then we are keeping him against his "wish". where are we giving lukaku the power?

I've noticed a theme to your posts. You like to question things, that's fine. But a post such as this is simply either:

A. Questioning something while actually being completely ignorant of the realities of the situation.

or

B. Questioning something just for the sake of questioning something in a vain attempt to be different/controversial.

You can't deny that it is very clear from what Lukaku has said to the media that he isn't 100% happy here and seems to have a sense of entitlement. And that's fine, as long as it is kept private. However, going to the media to air his grievances like he has done so many times is basically a death sentence under Mourinho.

Therefore, the 'betterment of the club' this season, as you say, is to not have a single 'bad apple' in the group (especially in the eyes of the manager). The manager needs to be 100% sure that everyone is pulling in the same direction. Mourinho cannot be sure with Lukaku, so unless we see a miraculous change in attitude (accepting his position as no.2 and maybe signing a new contract to that effect) the best thing 'for the club' is to move him on for the biggest price possible, as soon as possible.