Romelu Lukaku

[Stats 7,059]

Did he happen to tell you why Real Madrid haven't bid for him? Or Barcelona? Or PSG? Or Livepool? Or United? Or Arsenal?

Pogba was missed because United struggled for central midfielders.

The difference is that we replaced Lukaku already. Costa and Drogba are both better than him, whilst Bamford and Solanke have the potential to be.

So because Real, Barca, PSG, Liverpool, United or Arsenal did not bid for him, that means something? How many teams bid for Pogba when he was out of contract? Not much and considering he was out of contract it begs the question more. That is irrelevant because after a few years leaving United he has proved himself that he is one of the best CM in the world. You could also ask the same about Costa. Did Barca, Real, Liverpool, Arsenal bid for him? They did not so that makes your point invalid.

Also Drogba did not set the word alight at Galatasaraay. He was decent. I would rather a 21 year old HG player than a 36 year old for sure. I think people forget that Lukaku is only 4 months older than Bamford. Virtually the same age. He has got potential but I think some are overrating him. Let's see how he performs in the Prem before saying he can be better than Lukaku. Solanke is 16 and a long way of making an impact on the first team so I won't comment on him for now. We had many "potential to be" and "could of been" that have gone on to pastures new.

[didierforever 7,349]

You can't really compare that to City's strikers and do a 1+1=2 and just assume that because their overkill strikeforce barely won them the league that our's will have no chance. At the back we are much stronger and with a full season of Matic and newly-signed Fabregas our midfield has also suddenly become pretty good compared to last season's Ramires - Mikel. Our attacking midfielders score much more goal than City's apart from Yaya Toure, whose commitment to City is still somewhat unclear and it's not guaranteed he has another 20 goal season in him.

There's absolutely no reason to be all doom and gloom as you seem to be, with or without Lukaku it's an excellent time to be a Chelsea fan and with the squad we have there is a very good chance we will win back the title after five years of waiting.

thats the point. if we have gotten better, so have they! even they have improved their weaknesses (all 3 of them in my opinion).

no doubt it will be a very very close title race, and to win those u need to have an edge. we lose that bit of edge by selling lukaku.

ps - yaya has confirmed his stay at city if i remember correctly.

[Jype 6,398]

thats the point. if we have gotten better, so have they! even they have improved their weaknesses (all 3 of them in my opinion).

no doubt it will be a very very close title race, and to win those u need to have an edge. we lose that bit of edge by selling lukaku.

ps - yaya has confirmed his stay at city if i remember correctly.

Where have they gotten better exactly? As of now they have got Caballero, Sagna, Fernando and judging by the leaked video presentation Mangala is about to join too. Mangala is a good signing for them and improves their central defense but the rest are squad players at best.

They got Caballero, we got Courtois

They got Sagna, we got Filipe Luis

They got Fernando, we got Fabregas

We also got Costa and Drogba to replace Eto'o and Ba plus Van Ginkel and Romeu to replace Lampard.

Don't know about you but I would say we are winning them so far in the transfer window.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

Regardless of how you slice it, striking options of Costa, mediocre Torres and 36 year old Drogba simply doesn't inspire confidence, regardless of our other signings this summer. If Lukaku is really going to be sold and we have no real contingency plans to bring in a quality striker to replace him, then I have to make Man City favourites to retain the league. I trust that our board are at least looking for a viable replacement. If not, none of it makes sense. Absolutely none of it.

[didierforever 7,349]

Where have they gotten better exactly? As of now they have got Caballero, Sagna, Fernando and judging by the leaked video presentation Mangala is about to join too. Mangala is a good signing for them and improves their central defense but the rest are squad players at best.

They got Caballero, we got Courtois

They got Sagna, we got Filipe Luis

They got Fernando, we got Fabregas

We also got Costa and Drogba to replace Eto'o and Ba plus Van Ginkel and Romeu to replace Lampard.

Don't know about you but I would say we are winning them so far in the transfer window.

Where habe they gotten better? Seriously?

Caballero is a good signing for them cos he is a decent back up GK. courtois is a redundant move cos cech is not joe hart who got dropped for mistake after mistake.

Fernando is a squad signing but something they dearly needed. A good back up to yaya-fernandinho rather than falling straight back to garcia/rodwell.

Mangala is a no-brainer. I can't see them losing to the likes of cardiff (or burnley this year as analogy) and have a pathetic away form to start with.

We had a 4 point gap on top of 2 wins over them to begin with. We had to win against them this window to lessen the gap. And nowhere did I say that they have performed better than us in the window. We have been downright exceptoonal in this window so far. Getting costa, fab, luis and Dd for a net expenditure of 20mil (or less) is a great deal. But that doea not mean I can't say that city tok have gotten better, cos they have.

[didierforever 7,349]

Regardless of how you slice it, striking options of Costa, mediocre Torres and 36 year old Drogba simply doesn't inspire confidence, regardless of our other signings this summer. If Lukaku is really going to be sold and we have no real contingency plans to bring in a quality striker to replace him, then I have to make Man City favourites to retain the league. I trust that our board are at least looking for a viable replacement. If not, none of it makes sense. Absolutely none of it.

This.

[Fernando 6,488]

Dude I respect you for a lot of posts I agree on... but on the Lukaku thread you are really pissing me off!

Not only because you post almost everyday... But because you keep on repeating that he had his chance, is a coward, ran away and most importantly has a big mouth and needs to shut up. I didn't want to reply on that... but because you just keep on going... I just have to

First of all:

It really amazes me every time I see how many people think he has a big mouth, is an arrogant boy who 'said' he's a complete striker AND who also said he needs to be the #1 striker!

I don't know who replied on my last post saying 'we also know Romelu'... But fact is, if you say all these things above... it just proves one thing: you clearly don't know Lukaku and you are clearly biased by media! Yet again... it really amazes me how much impact the media has in the UK, because many guys on here tend to think these things.

So, like I said before, I know Lukaku personally from age 15. It's not like he calls me every night or would invite me on his b-day party BUT if I see him at the bridge he will most definitely recognize me and come over to say hi. So I think I'm well placed to make a judgement on him... and forgive me for getting very angry on people who are just filling forum pages because they also 'think' they know him! Lukaku is one of the most dedicated and professional players out there. Even when it comes to multimedia training etc! Please try to understand that the press loved the fact that Lukaku was outscoring our own strikers time after time and did their best to make a big story of that! By doing this also trying to make Lukaku say he also thinks he's better that the Chelsea strikes, etc. He really didn't. The only thing he did say once it that 'he feels like a more complete striker now' => easy to translate to 'a complete striker'

Now Facts:

• I will give you some inside info from the boardroom:
  • First off all trainers get the clear instructions to try and make Torres shine again. Don't forget this was a +50£ million investment... We will most definitely lose on him... but the board at least wants to regain of part of it => this is also the only reason why he keeps playing (frustrating so many fans!!)
  • Last season plan was to loan out or sell Demba Ba! Everything was tried to get him out so we would have 3 strikers left... At the final day of the mercato... only Arsenal and a financially broke Malaga were willing to take him. He was almost gone to Arsenal, but finally the board decided not to let him go to an EPL rival.
  • The fact that Ba wasn't loaned out had direct connection and impact on the Lukaku loan. This was the reason why this was also done so surprisingly late!
  • Mourinho didn't mind starting the season with 4 strikers! Which is his good right as a coach, but from a players point of view this means: 'if you're lucky you get enough chances to prove yourself. If you have bad luck... you end up in the stands. This is not really a risk you want to take in a WC year.
  • Lukaku knew Torres had to play (orders from above) & Eto'o came as a superstar and old friend of Mou as the 1st or 2nd option. Meaning he would be 3rd striker, probably on the same level as Ba.

So on those who keep saying he's a coward who run away.... one word: WC year with a promising Belgian team. He NEEDED to prove himself to our NT Wilmots after Benteke's amazing form! So he just needed to play. With 4 strikers at the bridge... the best way to prove himself was another loan to Everton.

If you think he had enough chances to prove himself after 3 games in competition... => You're joking right?? He gets a real chance in a game or 10-15. Still needs to come. So imo Lukaku absolutely didn't had the chance to prove himself yet at the bridge!

For the 'big mouth' shit => please get to know the real person instead of the media made version of him!

If you want my opinion about a possible transfer... If the club sorts out the problem with Torres before the end of August (sell him), there is a 100% chance that Lukaku will stay and fight for his spot with Costa & Drogba!

We are talking about facts hey?

:blue scalf:

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

You can't really compare that to City's strikers and do a 1+1=2 and just assume that because their overkill strikeforce barely won them the league that our's will have no chance. At the back we are much stronger and with a full season of Matic and newly-signed Fabregas our midfield has also suddenly become pretty good compared to last season's Ramires - Mikel. Our attacking midfielders score much more goal than City's apart from Yaya Toure, whose commitment to City is still somewhat unclear and it's not guaranteed he has another 20 goal season in him.

There's absolutely no reason to be all doom and gloom as you seem to be, with or without Lukaku it's an excellent time to be a Chelsea fan and with the squad we have there is a very good chance we will win back the title after five years of waiting.

Even if Lukaku leaves, I still feel we have at least a good a squad, or even better a squad than Man City, but our attack once again is left depleted quality wise.

Goalkeepers : Cech and Courtois is certainly better than Hart and Caballero.

Defence : Filipe Luis, JT, Cahill and Azpilicueta + Ivanovic just might be the most solid back four in Europe. It edges out Kolarov, Kompany, Mangala and Zabaleta + Sagna. Mangala, while he may be a great athlete is prone to make mistakes and Kolarov is a good attacking LB but Luis is much more solid than him. Azpilicueta right now is probably slightly better than Pablo "I like to get f**ed by Hazard" Zabaleta.

Midfield : Matic, Ramires, Fabregas, van Ginkel, Hazard, Oscar, Schurrle, Willian, Mikel and Romeu is just simply incredible, one of the top 3 best in Europe. It has every single quality you want in a midfield. It's better than Fernando, Fernandinho, Toure, Silva, Nasri, Milner, Navas and Garcia. It has more variety and quality than Man City's midfield.

Attack (without Lukaku) : Costa, Torres and Drogba is simply not as impressive as Aguero, Dzeko, Negredo and Jovetic. Those 4 are much better than Torres and Drogba. A guy like Aguero if he stays fit this season is just as deadly as Luis Suarez in my opinion. Now, if this wasn't Costa's first season, it will be a different story. I don'y expect him to start many, many games his first season. He will need time to adapt to the pace and intensity of the league.

We have better goalkeepers, defence and midfield than Man City but they are easily stronger in attack. And we saw last season with Liverpool how a superb strike-force can carry an above average team to greatness. We saw it with Man United in Fergie's last season there.

[Diego 433]

If by the end of the window we have Costa, Torres and Drogba as our options i wont be particularly hopeful. It would put huge pressure on costa and he would need to play nearly every game. I cant see Drogba (as much as i wish) doing much especially if he had to start the match. And Torres is er well Torres

[Jype 6,398]

Where habe they gotten better? Seriously?

Caballero is a good signing for them cos he is a decent back up GK. courtois is a redundant move cos cech is not joe hart who got dropped for mistake after mistake.

Fernando is a squad signing but something they dearly needed. A good back up to yaya-fernandinho rather than falling straight back to garcia/rodwell.

Mangala is a no-brainer. I can't see them losing to the likes of cardiff (or burnley this year as analogy) and have a pathetic away form to start with.

We had a 4 point gap on top of 2 wins over them to begin with. We had to win against them this window to lessen the gap. And nowhere did I say that they have performed better than us in the window. We have been downright exceptoonal in this window so far. Getting costa, fab, luis and Dd for a net expenditure of 20mil (or less) is a great deal. But that doea not mean I can't say that city tok have gotten better, cos they have.

So, they have signed three decent squad players and one starter whereas we have improved massively by adding four amazing players to be starters (Costa, Fabregas, Luis, Courtois) and a bunch of good squad players (Drogba, Van Ginkel, Romeu, Zouma). Then we also have fully adjusted and cup-eligible players in Matic, Salah and like we all know Mourinho's teams are always better the second time around so we can easily expect more from all the others as well.

I wasn't saying City haven't gotten a little better, because they have addressed some problems in their squad even though none of the players they've signed so far would make our team, but it's way too pessimistic to be thinking they've somehow become unbeatable after signing average squad players like Sagna and Fernando because in reality we weren't all that much worse than them even last season and we've improved enough to easily get 10 more point if things go our way. Whether that's enough for the title or not remains to be seen, but at the moment I only see us having improved enormously and I will much rather be happy about our chances than all doom and gloom. Living your life that way must be hard...

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

This was why I did not want Drogba to come back,

[Madmax 9,219]

Has this been posted here? Apologies if so.

Some fan to Martinez on Everton's pre-season tour : "Robbie, are we getting Rom?"

Martinez : "Of course, of course we'll get him."

[Korea 734]

Where have they gotten better exactly? As of now they have got Caballero, Sagna, Fernando and judging by the leaked video presentation Mangala is about to join too. Mangala is a good signing for them and improves their central defense but the rest are squad players at best.

They got Caballero, we got Courtois

They got Sagna, we got Filipe Luis

They got Fernando, we got Fabregas

We also got Costa and Drogba to replace Eto'o and Ba plus Van Ginkel and Romeu to replace Lampard.

Don't know about you but I would say we are winning them so far in the transfer window.

City didn't really need to buy this window.

Chelsea and the rest of the epl did.

[Korea 734]

Even if Lukaku leaves, I still feel we have at least a good a squad, or even better a squad than Man City, but our attack once again is left depleted quality wise.

Goalkeepers : Cech and Courtois is certainly better than Hart and Caballero.

Defence : Filipe Luis, JT, Cahill and Azpilicueta + Ivanovic just might be the most solid back four in Europe. It edges out Kolarov, Kompany, Mangala and Zabaleta + Sagna. Mangala, while he may be a great athlete is prone to make mistakes and Kolarov is a good attacking LB but Luis is much more solid than him. Azpilicueta right now is probably slightly better than Pablo "I like to get f**ed by Hazard" Zabaleta.

Midfield : Matic, Ramires, Fabregas, van Ginkel, Hazard, Oscar, Schurrle, Willian, Mikel and Romeu is just simply incredible, one of the top 3 best in Europe. It has every single quality you want in a midfield. It's better than Fernando, Fernandinho, Toure, Silva, Nasri, Milner, Navas and Garcia. It has more variety and quality than Man City's midfield.

Attack (without Lukaku) : Costa, Torres and Drogba is simply not as impressive as Aguero, Dzeko, Negredo and Jovetic. Those 4 are much better than Torres and Drogba. A guy like Aguero if he stays fit this season is just as deadly as Luis Suarez in my opinion. Now, if this wasn't Costa's first season, it will be a different story. I don'y expect him to start many, many games his first season. He will need time to adapt to the pace and intensity of the league.

We have better goalkeepers, defence and midfield than Man City but they are easily stronger in attack. And we saw last season with Liverpool how a superb strike-force can carry an above average team to greatness. We saw it with Man United in Fergie's last season there.

Better GKs and thats it....

Midfield is a wash and healthy city backline>chelsea.

[Toli 977]

if we sell him and get a technical, young striker in (icardi? or someone else) than I am happy. if we stay with Torres and Drogba, well, then we are f-ed. we should pray to god that Costa wont get injured/tired the whole season, because we have no strikers left. I cant believe that Mou would put faith in those both, so I really hope we'll sign someone if Lukaku leaves if not, Mou seems to get emotions over rational thinking in terms of Drogs

[stroey 2,525]

Sell Lukaku, buy Bony/Remy.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

And in three years we come back with offer of 50m...brilliant Chelsea as allways selling our top young players....

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

24m deal very close to being agreed, looks like he is going for good without scoring a goal for Chelsea.