Should we put our faith in the youth?

[The only place to be 11,313]

You didn't understand what I was saying (or I might have badly explained it).

What I was saying :

Manchester United 2012-13 : Van Persie (19), Rooney (11)

Manchester City 2011-12 : Aguero (23), Dzeko (14), Balotelli (13)

Manchester United 2010-11 : Berbatov (21), Own Goal (I don't remember the figure), Rooney (11), Hernandez (13)

Chelsea 2009-10 : Drogba (29), Anelka (11)

Manchester United 2008-09 : Rooney (12), Ronaldo (18), Tevez (5)

Manchester United 2007-08 : Ronaldo (31), Tevez (14), Rooney (13)

...

I was not talking about Chelsea when we had Mourinho. I was just looking at the five previous seasons (plus this one) to work out what was the current tendency in football. And from the stats, and my opinion, I can say that the striking force of the club which have recently won the Premier League has taken an important role in those victories — and this both regarding the goals scored and the work done (and I stress that I don't base my judgment solely on the goal record).

The same goes for the Liga. Though I don't really know for the Bundesliga and the Calcio.

And that is exactly the same for the Champions League. When Milan won in 2007, Kakà (who was played as a striker/Second striker), was instrumental in their victory (especially against United). And Super Pipo scored the two goals in the final. In 2008, the striking force Ronaldo/Tevez/Rooney was instrumental. In 2009, Eto'o was instrumental (in the CL and the league as well — he scored about 1/3 of Barcelona first goals). In 2010, Milito was instrumental (scored the two goals in the final). 2011, Messi was instrumental. 2012, Drogba was instrumental.

I am just saying that, to my understanding, the majority of the successful teams of the recent years had a powerful striking force. To my mind, a great striking force is required to be succesfull.

That's why I believe we shouldn't understimate the importance of the striking force. That's why I believe that it's presumptuous and unwise to give the key of our attack to "only" a kid — yes, ready or not, he is still a "kid" — and a stop-gap — yes, Ba is a stop-gap, but don't jump on me, I will explain latter why in my mind he is so, please.

Look, did you see what happens to Barça when Messi — for X ou Y reason — is not playing good ? The catalans struggle to score, they lack penetration, and they also have hard times to creat any goal-scoring chance. How many times this season Manchester United were saved by RvP ? How comes last year Arsenal managed to get the third spot ? The dutchman carried them there. How comes that ever sonce the summer 2010, we are in shambles ? Our striking force is average ! They aren't there to get in goals when it matters. They aren't there to cause havocs in defences, etc...

My point here, is that without a very good (not good, but very good) striking force, you will find it hard to lift some important trophies at the end of the season.

Not going to make a long post because I don't have time, but we don't have to do things the way other clubs do.

We have goals from around the front four like we did 8 years ago. Then our main contributor was Lamps, yet it worked. What Drogba did was bring other people into the game and made them better players and we can do that again. Hazard, Moses and even Oscar are capable of contributing goals whilst Lukaku has shown a knack of scoring goals too.

People keep saying we need a proven striker, and then thrown in names like Falcao and Cavani who ARE NOT proven in the Premier League. Yesterday Lukaku made Ashley Williams his bitch - this is a guy Arsenal are seriously looking at and who has been a form player all season.

Lukaku has done exactly what was asked of him and I don't see a single reason why he can't be our main guy next season. I want this guy to succeed, I'd be excited turning up to see him play every week because he loves this club like every single supporter in the ground does. He's stepped up and met every challenge thrown at him with an impeccable attitude and amazing results. He deserves a chance, he deserves us supporting him.

What he doesn't deserve is people saying he isn't good enough before he's had the chance to prove it. That's not supporting him.

[Santiago. 1,500]

Well apparently we're going to go after Falcao using Courtois as bait.

Great.

Put a high-priced striker in front of a young man who has done well, loves Chelsea but unfortunately won't sell as many shirts to people who couldn't find Stamford Bridge with Google fucking Maps helping them whilst also cashing in on someone who could live between the sticks for the next decade and a half.

Fucking ridiculous.

According to whom exactly?

[Styles 9,790]

Well apparently we're going to go after Falcao using Courtois as bait.

Great.

Put a high-priced striker in front of a young man who has done well, loves Chelsea but unfortunately won't sell as many shirts to people who couldn't find Stamford Bridge with Google fucking Maps helping them whilst also cashing in on someone who could live between the sticks for the next decade and a half.

Fucking ridiculous.

Sounds very much like the next manager has identified his main target. Guess the new man doesn't care much for the young players.

[Bosnian Blue 2,471]

The answer is yes, we should, but the reality is that we won't.

[Santiago. 1,500]

Sounds very much like the next manager has identified his main target. Guess the new man doesn't care much for the young players.

Again, according to where?

[Mundaka 243]

The rumour:

http://www.elcentrocampista.com/2013/02/chelsea-closing-in-on-la-liga-star/

Courtois already made a statement about this rumour(Has been going on since our defeat vs Atl. Madrid):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/feedarticle/10661678

Anyways 47M + Courtois(70/80M?) vs Falcao whom we might not even need? Would be ridiculous considering fair play rules + we should strengthen CM first if anything, doubt much money will be left like that :/.

[Mundaka 243]

The answer is yes, we should, but the reality is that we won't.

Care to explain why?

[Bosnian Blue 2,471]

Care to explain why?

No stability, no manager who would last longer than a year or two, no football men at the Board, no patience, the fact Roman doesn't know what he wants etc. Plenty of reasons.

Just for the record, I'm speaking about Chelsea's youth, Chelsea's academy products, not youngsters like Hazard or Oscar who costed quite a lot of money.

[Peace. 4,352]

Not going to make a long post because I don't have time, but we don't have to do things the way other clubs do.

We have goals from around the front four like we did 8 years ago. Then our main contributor was Lamps, yet it worked. What Drogba did was bring other people into the game and made them better players and we can do that again. Hazard, Moses and even Oscar are capable of contributing goals whilst Lukaku has shown a knack of scoring goals too.

People keep saying we need a proven striker, and then thrown in names like Falcao and Cavani who ARE NOT proven in the Premier League. Yesterday Lukaku made Ashley Williams his bitch - this is a guy Arsenal are seriously looking at and who has been a form player all season.

Lukaku has done exactly what was asked of him and I don't see a single reason why he can't be our main guy next season. I want this guy to succeed, I'd be excited turning up to see him play every week because he loves this club like every single supporter in the ground does. He's stepped up and met every challenge thrown at him with an impeccable attitude and amazing results. He deserves a chance, he deserves us supporting him.

What he doesn't deserve is people saying he isn't good enough before he's had the chance to prove it. That's not supporting him.

Yes, we do not have to do things the other clubs do. But we neither have to act like hipsters and believe that a squad lacking quality will do just fine. The board already did it this year and last year.

Yes, we could try and apply this tactic once again. But in fact, I see many flaws in it. First of all, Lukaku is not Drogba. They are two different player. Drogba is a target man. He holds the ball perfectly. Lukaku plays different football. Even if he is tall and strong, he doesn't play like a target man. I could be wrong, if he has dramatically changed is way of playing, but I don't think it's the case (maybe someone can enlight us). Of course, he can adapt to a different role. But let's not make the same mistake we did with Mikel, i.e. change his role while developing. I'd rather let him develope further and then why not try to change his playing style.

Secondly, Hazard/Mata/Oscar aren't Lampard. In my honest opinion, the Lampard back then was head and shoulders above them, when it comes to score goals. They are not as good and tend to miss golden opportunities. The best exemple is Oscar missing three golden opportunities against West Bromwich. The two others do it also. That's why I would be recalcitrant to expect them to do the same job as Lampard was doing back then.

And finally, I don't like this tactic where you put the goalscoring responsability upon your midfielders' shoulders. Because they are not natural goal scorers, that's not their job, that's all. It's really a bonus to have midfielders like Mata and Oscar who are perfectly able to score a lot of goals. But that doesn't mean they should do the striker job. This ability is a bonus. You cannot expect your midfielders to be your goalscoring players, then expect your striker to step up when they cannot find the net. That's the other way around. That's how I see things, at least. To me, strikers should score goals and midfielders should do the play.

People keep saying Falcao, maybe, but not me. Actually I think it will be the flop n°3 and I don't want him. However, I want Cavani. And no, please, not because it looks nice to throw in such a name or whatsoever. I want him because I like his profil, and I think that he is what we need. Voilà.

And in another post of yours you told me :

People willing to write him off using jaundiced logic when they won't apply it to their own suggestions really does piss me off.

That baffles me. You say this and then go on about that Cavani is not proven in the Premier League and blablabla. Is Lukaku proven against big teams ? No. And you say that Chalobah is ready for coming back to Chelsea. But is he proven in the PL ? No. Is he proven against top opposition ? No.

I fail to understand you there. Yeah, Cavani is not proven in the Premier League, so what ? Ah but yeah ! Lukaku looked great against Ashley Williams, the player followed by Arsenal. Is he of the caliber of Giroud, Squillacy, André Santos, Mertesacker, etc...? Don't get me wrong, I am not undermining his performance.

P.S. In another post you told me that I was writting him off, not at all.... That's quite the contrary. I believe that he is ready, but I also believe that there are better solutions for both him and us, that's all.

[Stingray 9,441]

Lukaku himself said in that belgian interview that he is NOT a target man, and probably never will be. He prefers putting more depth in his game instead of footballing with his back to the goal. He simply has different qualities (strength, speed - the only one faster is Hazard in the NT, he said, and his nose for goals).

As is Peace, I love Cavani. Not for the hype (eg Falcao) but for his player profile. I do see a match in playing our midfield + Cavani. Also, we would have options playing with two strikers (cavani/Lukaku or ba).

Somehow it computes in my brain. So, do we put faith in youth? Yes! But we put some additional experience, quality and the position of target man in the blender. One does not rule out the other in this case.

Ps: we will prolly still need to 'malouda' Torres though.

[Santiago. 1,500]

I absolutely forbid doing a 'Malouda' to anyone who is shit and earns 6 digits a week for fuck all. He's leeching our club and we should just fucking release the waste of fuck that Torres is

[Stingray 9,441]

I absolutely forbid doing a 'Malouda' to anyone who is shit and earns 6 digits a week for fuck all. He's leeching our club and we should just fucking release the waste of fuck that Torres is

We will have to seriously gift wrap him to get rid of him, then!

[Backstreet09 499]

I absolutely forbid doing a 'Malouda' to anyone who is shit and earns 6 digits a week for fuck all. He's leeching our club and we should just fucking release the waste of fuck that Torres is

Do you know what's in his release clause lol ?

[Stingray 9,441]

Do you know what's in his release clause lol ?

How much is it? It might be worth it, actually.

[Peace. 4,352]

Having Ba + Lukaku ain't gonna work. Lukaku has yet to finish his developement. It would be a mistake to try and blood in Lukaku in the first team while only having Ba as the other striker.

Ba can only play about 50% of the games. Therefore, in the 50% remaining games, the responsibility to lead our frontline will behove to Lukaku. As a matter of fact, there will have significant expectations on him, from the fans, the board and the medias. Furthermore, at the moment Ba escapes criticisms. That's kinda normal ; we started this honeymoon in January because we were so happy to finally a striker, a striker who moreover was thought as the ladyboy replacement. But soon, there will come a time when we will start to realize that Ba is so so, and that he isn't of the quality to be in the starting eleven of a top team. What will happen then ? Pretty simple to work out. All of our eyes will move away from Ba to settle on Lukaku. All the spotlights will be upon him. That's the best away to put pressure on someone.

Look at Welbeck. Last year he had Rooney and Berbatov. This year he has Rooney and Van Persie. He can thrive and fuck things up in peace, because the spotlights are on the other strikers. The same applies with Jones. He has Ferdinand and Vidic around him. Varane has Pepe and Ramos. Cleverly has Giggs, Scholes and Carrick. The pressure is kept away from these young players because of the reputation of the players surrounding 'em. They can focus on their game.

That won't happen at Chelsea with Lukaku. Because is role will be as important as Ba's role, if not more. And all of you guys, who think that Ba+Lukaku is good enough, are proving me right. That's a big expectation to lay upon an "only" good striker and a good young who's still developping.

I'd rather have him free from pressure at West Brom, and recall him back next summer when we will have a very good striker settled into the team.

To my eyes, that's how one should blood in young players on big clubs. Currently we cannot offer this to Lukaku.

[Backstreet09 499]

How much is it? It might be worth it, actually.

I don't know lol , but it has to be ALOT .

[zolayes 14,489]

I see Ba as short term ,,Lukaku is our long term hope but agree an established striker is needed for next season,

[Blue Gino 377]

Kevin De Bruyne says a Chelsea scout visits him rarely, talks to him for a few minutes and says "keep up the good work". De Bruyne says he has no idea if he's coming back next season from loan but if he does it won't be on the bench.

Whereas Josh McEachran gets visits from Eddie Newton and he and Josh sit down over lunch, and discuss what the club is expecting of him. Boro sends DVDs of Josh's performances to Chelsea after each match. Josh even says he doesn't see Oscar, Mata or Hazard in his future position. It's Lampard's current role that Josh is working towards as the deeper playmaker at Boro. To me Chelsea have Josh and Nathaniel in mind to represent club and country in the near future to replace Lamps and Terry.