A Case Against Signing Radamel Falcao

[Strike 6,964]

Borini could of been our 4th choice striker...

We could say Borini, Di santo etc but would they have developed that way here? Doubt it. Hernandez had ridiculous pace and thats a big part of his game. Borini, Di santo etc were good but relied on trickery which was developed over time.

[nadavTKL 1,787]

1. Two more seasons than Falcao has had in the Premier League.

2. Let's not pretend that signing Falcao isn't a gamble either.

The difference is we've already gambled on Lukaku by signing him.

3. Does Eden Hazard's age seem to be holding him back? What about Mata? Let's not confuse age and experience.

4. My personal fantasy is Lukaku fulfilling his potential in a Chelsea shirt.

5. It'll be a commitment of close to £100 million. FFP or not that's a lot of money. What we're doing right now is building a team, one that can grow together and buying some flash fucking tart who is 27 and expensive isn't a guarantee of success. We've got a kid who loves this club and has EARNED his shot because of his attitude and it's having faith in that is what will bring us success in my opinion.

Its like you just said to youself: "I have to reply to him no matter what i actually have to say because he doesnt think like i do". The first seconds i started to read your post i preperd myself for a childish post. Im not your enemy and you seem like a reasonable writer, write like one.

1. PL is the league we're playing and Lukaku played there more than Falcao, thats something, but not realy equal to the fact Falcao is more experience than him and his far more proven, so as other top strikers, not just Falcao.

2. Every signing is a gamble, you probably know that, but a "One good season outside Belgium 20 year old (in WBA)" as our first striker is probably one of the biggest gambles you could see in todays football. Gambles are a must, but the goal for a club in our size is to win everything the next season, and with so much pressure on a player like Lukaku, the chances for this goal to fail is bigger than with a more proven leading striker.

3. Its like you just dont want to try to understand. My point is we need to have some balance when it comes to experience (i wrote 25-28 because they are probably more experienced than a 20-22 player, wasnt that obvious...). Real, Bayern, Barcelona and others, they all have that balance. I havent got what you meant about "Eden Hazard's age seem to be holding him back?", but its clear some of our players are still very young and a bit naive. A winning side have to have those more experienced leaders.

4. Great, he could do that even if we'll get a top striker, if he's realy good.

5. Now falcao is a tart? anyway, like i said i dont think the all squad has "to grow together", its very nice and romantic (well, we buy those players so it isnt that romantic), but i dont want us to become Arsenal, i want us to win trophies, soon. One new striker wont destroy this "growing toghther" issue, it will just give us more balance, something that is vital to win things.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Its like you just said to youself: "I have to reply to him no matter what i actually have to say because he doesnt think like i do". The first seconds i started to read your post i preperd myself for a childish post. Im not your enemy and you seem like a reasonable writer, write like one.

1. PL is the league we're playing and Lukaku played there more than Falcao, thats something, but not realy equal to the fact Falcao is more experience than him and his far more proven, so as other top strikers, not just Falcao.

Falcao is proven in La Liga and Portugal. In terms of the Premier League, he has no experience and he also hasn't has masses of top level CL experience. He's 27, and he's never played at a top, top team in my opinion.

2. Every signing is a gamble, you probably know that, but a "One good season outside Belgium 20 year old (in WBA)" as our first striker is probably one of the biggest gambles you could see in todays football. Gambles are a must, but the goal for a club in our size is to win everything the next season, and with so much pressure on a player like Lukaku, the chances for this goal to fail is bigger than with a more proven leading striker.

The target for this club is to win in a sustainable manner. We have to start that at some point and if that means we don't win everything next year but continue to build a young team capable of winning TOGETHER for many years then I'd be fine with that.

3. Its like you just dont want to try to understand. My point is we need to have some balance when it comes to experience (i wrote 25-28 because they are probably more experienced than a 20-22 player, wasnt that obvious...). Real, Bayern, Barcelona and others, they all have that balance. I havent got what you meant about "Eden Hazard's age seem to be holding him back?", but its clear some of our players are still very young and a bit naive. A winning side have to have those more experienced leaders.

We'll still have Cech, Terry, Cole, Mikel, Cahill, Ivanovic, Ba and possibly Torres. In our squad we have about half a dozen national team captains, World Cup Winners, African Cup Winners, Premier League Winners, French Players of the Year, Champions League winners and almost all are key players for their national sides. People think we're going to be a young team, but that's not true and even if it were to be true it's not the be all and end all. It's just one possible narrative.

4. Great, he could do that even if we'll get a top striker, if he's realy good.

5. Now falcao is a tart? anyway, like i said i dont think the all squad has "to grow together", its very nice and romantic (well, we buy those players so it isnt that romantic), but i dont want us to become Arsenal, i want us to win trophies, soon. You win trophis with balance, with 25-30 year old players.

WE WON'T BECOME FUCKING ARSENAL. It's the stupidest fucking comparison because it shows a complete lack of understanding about what happened at Arsenal whilst simultaneously failing to understand what we're trying to do here.

I'm sorry if that sounds rude, but the amount of times someone incorrectly invokes the spectre of Arsenal is really rather grating. Arsenal sold their best players and replaced them with the Artetas, Mertesackers and Podolskis of this world. They sold world-class players and replaced them with old (sorry, experienced) players who weren't good enough. They underinvested in their team as a whole whereas we're still spending big.

In fact we spent about £18 million on a striker not too long ago.

And yes it is romantic. That's why we follow football isn't it? For the romance? Do you know what else is romantic? A team who played together for close to a decade lifting themselves one more time against all odds to win the biggest prize in football.

You might as well go the whole hog and say you can't win anything with kids....oh, you very nearly did.

[xPetrCechx 13,548]

http://forum.talkchelsea.net/topic/10252-radamel-falcao/page-182#entry629896

[nadavTKL 1,787]

Falcao is proven in La Liga and Portugal. In terms of the Premier League, he has no experience and he also hasn't has masses of top level CL experience. He's 27, and he's never played at a top, top team in my opinion.

The target for this club is to win in a sustainable manner. We have to start that at some point and if that means we don't win everything next year but continue to build a young team capable of winning TOGETHER for many years then I'd be fine with that.

We'll still have Cech, Terry, Cole, Mikel, Cahill, Ivanovic, Ba and possibly Torres. In our squad we have about half a dozen national team captains, World Cup Winners, African Cup Winners, Premier League Winners, French Players of the Year, Champions League winners and almost all are key players for their national sides. People think we're going to be a young team, but that's not true and even if it were to be true it's not the be all and end all. It's just one possible narrative.

WE WON'T BECOME FUCKING ARSENAL. It's the stupidest fucking comparison because it shows a complete lack of understanding about what happened at Arsenal whilst simultaneously failing to understand what we're trying to do here.

I'm sorry if that sounds rude, but the amount of times someone incorrectly invokes the spectre of Arsenal is really rather grating. Arsenal sold their best players and replaced them with the Artetas, Mertesackers and Podolskis of this world. They sold world-class players and replaced them with old (sorry, experienced) players who weren't good enough. They underinvested in their team as a whole whereas we're still spending big.

In fact we spent about £18 million on a striker not too long ago.

And yes it is romantic. That's why we follow football isn't it? For the romance? Do you know what else is romantic? A team who played together for close to a decade lifting themselves one more time against all odds to win the biggest prize in football.

You might as well go the whole hog and say you can't win anything with kids....oh, you very nearly did.

You're right, i shouldnt have said Arsenal, but its clearly not the point, the point is that you can win things with kids, but you have a bigger chance with more experience in your line up and squad. You mentioned some of our more experienced players but probably 2-3 of them will be in the first line up in the next 1-2 seasons.. and more importantly, i think a trio+striker of Hazard-Mata-Oscar/Moses-Lukaku is a bit too naive when it comes to scoring goals and especially in difficult situations, all that when you actually want to be the best. I think a main difference between us is that i dont think we should now wait a couple of more seasons and just than try to win everything. i think that in the coming summer, with the money we have, we need to complete our squad so it could compete against the best teams in Europe. With the right manager and the right players, i think we could and should reach that. I think we need 2-3 players to go straight to the first eleven to become a real force. I dont think getting Lukaku to be the first striker is the right step if you want to become a real force straight away, thats why i think its the wrong move.

Now my vision isnt that far from yours, because im only talking about a proven striker and about a CDM instead of Mikel, and maybe a CM. For example, im open for the idea of playing Oscar or KDB in the pivot, as a first choise, if the manager will think they are the right choises for his vision. But with a striker its different, a striker have a very specific role, a job he has to do in the most important-big games. When we will probably need to buy a 3rd striker, i dont see a reason not to buy a top top striker when Lukaku is still 20 and have a very long career ahead of him. Other top teams have at least 2 top strikers, we shouldnt have that becuase of Lukaku's future?

* You kind a went far with my comment about "romance", it was a joke.

* About Falcao, maybe he havent played for a very big club but he lead two teams to win EL scoring tons of goals and for two seasons he's a big force in one of the best leaguse in the world. and i think this thing with "but not proven in PL" is a big exaggeration from people. PL isnt a different level of football, not at all actually, and a very very good player like Falcao will be successful everywhere, imo. but as i said already- im not talking only about him.