Radamel Falcao

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Every club needs depth. Splashing out on Falcao (and not buying any other players) isn't going to solve our midfield problems. Right now I think we need someone like Moutinho, whether we're going to continue with 4-2-3-1 or make the change to 4-3-3, he would be perfect. We someone who is going to link the defence to attack, someone who can control the tempo of the game. I think Oscar would be able to do this perfectly, but his positioning isn't yet good enough to perform the defensive aspect of that role.

We won't have an attack without a striker.

[Corner 456]

We won't have an attack without a striker.

Yes, I know. I never said we shouldn't sign a striker. I just said that buying only a striker won't solve our problems.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Yes, I know. I never said we shouldn't sign a striker. I just said that buying only a striker won't solve our problems.

Again, what makes you think buying Falcao means we won't get a midfielder? We have no clue where our financial outlook is at. I'm operating under the guise that the Board, if anything, are bean counters and will know if this is an investment we can handle

[Corner 456]

Again, what makes you think buying Falcao means we won't get a midfielder? We have no clue where our financial outlook is at. I'm operating under the guise that the Board, if anything, are bean counters and will know if this is an investment we can handle

Nothing makes me think that. I was just replying to when you said we don't need depth, that's all.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

No we don't have any strikers. We have a loser whose being paid like a top striker and producing like a league one player. We need elite level talent not more middling depth, that is the difference between the top teams and the second tier which you'd like us to be strong in. Look at the top teams in the world and try and find one team that doesn't have an elite level player on high wages! Yes we fucked up massively on signing Torres but does that mean we shouldn't keep with the club's ambitions? Because we shit the bed on Torres everything should stop until he's gone? That's ludicrous! Chelsea's ambition as a club is bigger than a £50m investment.

And whose to say Falcao won't turn into that loser if sign him? And I would take a good striker, a RB and a CM over Falcao alone any day of the week. A few players can sometimes win you games on their own. Players like Messi, Drogba, Del Piero ( I'd even say Cech)...etc I wouldn't say Falcao is in that rare bunch (he relies on his teammates service and very rarely creates for himself) but even if he did, those players can't win you a league or a competition alone, you need 10 other players doing their jobs. That's why squad depth is more important than one star, imo.

I have no idea what you label as "elite". But we have arguably the best keeper in the world in Cech, we have JT who may have lost what little pace he had but is still a top class defender, we have Ash who is still the best LB in the world on his day, and we have the best play maker in the League in Mata, not to mention all the young players who are on their way to being world-class.

I really don't like how our team is portrayed as a mid-table team with shit players and even worse how Falcao is the supposed messiah who will turn us into world-beaters. It's not either death or the demise of Chelsea FC. Falcao is one player, an excellent striker but still one player. We can sign him if the deal is suitable or we can look at other players if the deal does not suit the club; simple as.

You say we can't afford him flopping, I say we can't afford to keep playing with a recognized in form striker. And with this notion of spreading the money around on other parts on the pitch isn't there a risk that those lesser investments could flop too? wouldn't we be in the exact same predicament now? The difference is if Falcao works out we could have the biggest match winner at CF on our team, a guy capable of winning matches on his own. That is invaluable to me.

Again, Falcao is not the only striker in the world. Yes, we need to replace Torres, but it does not have to be by Falcao.

If one or two of the 4 players we could buy instead of Falcao flop, then it won't be the end of the world because signing players is always a gamble and you can afford lose some average gambles but the last time we made a 50m gamble it cost us 4 managers and we still have not recovered from it.

[Rubber bullets 1,183]

We really should have bought him last season, where he would have cost way less and therefroe less pressure to performe.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

And whose to say Falcao won't turn into that loser if sign him? And I would take a good striker, a RB and a CM over Falcao alone any day of the week. A few players can sometimes win you games on their own. Players like Messi, Drogba, Del Piero ( I'd even say Cech)...etc I wouldn't say Falcao is in that rare bunch (he relies on his teammates service and very rarely creates for himself) but even if he did, those players can't win you a league or a competition alone, you need 10 other players doing their jobs. That's why squad depth is more important than one star, imo.

I have no idea what you label as "elite". But we have arguably the best keeper in the world in Cech, we have JT who may have lost what little pace he had but is still a top class defender, we have Ash who is still the best LB in the world on his day, and we have the best play maker in the League in Mata, not to mention all the young players who are on their way to being world-class.

I really don't like how our team is portrayed as a mid-table team with shit players and even worse how Falcao is the supposed messiah who will turn us into world-beaters. It's not either death or the demise of Chelsea FC. Falcao is one player, an excellent striker but still one player. We can sign him if the deal is suitable or we can look at other players if the deal does not suit the club; simple as.

Again, Falcao is not the only striker in the world. Yes, we need to replace Torres, but it does not have to be by Falcao.

If one or two of the 4 players we could buy instead of Falcao flop, then it won't be the end of the world because signing players is always a gamble and you can afford lose some average gambles but the last time we made a 50m gamble it cost us 4 managers and we still have not recovered from it.

LOL try telling that to Bilbao(EL finals) and Deportivo, or even Chelsea for that matter... He is without a doubt a match winner.

The fact that you're pointing to Cech and an over the hill Terry as our elite level talent speaks volumes to me... Can you build a team around Cech? JT was world class he wouldn't be considred anything close to that by most people now. Mata is burgeoning talent you can't mention him in elite class yet, he's an up and comer he's not in his prime yet. Elite to me is Van Persie, Aguero, Messi, Ronaldo, Ibra, Xavi, Yaya, Falcao, Cavani, Lahm, Iniesta.

We finished 6th in the prem league last year, we're out at the group stage in Europe this year... I think its safe to say at current we aren't an elite level team right now. Its a transitional year not too similar from what happened at Liverpool... If we want to end this transition period we need to add prime time talent that is at the elite level. Adding a few spare parts here and there to paper over the cracks will not do much in the race to become elite, sure we'll consistently finish top 4 and we'll beat some good teams now and again but without elite talent we won't be competing with the Barca's, Real's, Mancs, Bayern, Dortmund etc. That's where we want to be not duking it out with Tottenham

He's not the only striker but he is the BEST! and he happens to be available could you say the same thing for the other big name strikers out there?

[communicate 2,703]

Imo we should continue building younger team. Falcao is 27/28 and for the money that everyone talked about, we can get probably 2 yoing players.

If we want proven striker, we should have gone for rvp last year, proven striker in epl for just half falcao fee

[Jype 6,398]

"The crazy transfer season has started and nobody attracts more attention than Falcao. Mostly because it is clear that at least four clubs (Real Madrid, City, PSG and Chelsea) are willing or thinking about paying his buy out clause of 60 million euros. This is what I have been told: Chelsea are favourite for his signing but Florentino Perez at Madrid would like him to be the galactico signing of next season. Atletico will not contemplate him leaving in January. It is not totally up to the club as the payment of the buy out clause leaves the decision in the player's hands. But IMPORTANTLY the player has told the club that he wants to stay till the end of the season.

Ideally he wants to decide where to move next by February or March, and he has told some team mates Madrid or London are his preferred destinations.

So, Atletico Madrid insists, negotiations are not as advanced as people are claiming. And the have the word of the player to stay to help the club fight for a top two or three finish."

By Guillem Balague. Sounds about right. To me it has been clear all along that he's not leaving in January but is likely to sign for us or Real Madrid in the summer. Atletico would no doubt prefer Chelsea over their local rivals Real Madrid and I would think Falcao respects Atletico and their fans too much to insult them by going to Real Madrid, especially if he is given a choice to join another club (in this case us) instead.

[xPetrCechx 13,563]

I Would Take RL over him...

[Irakozium257 350]

Has he played in the EL? If not, it would be great if we buy him, it's his playground. =D

[xPetrCechx 13,563]

Has he played in the EL? If not, it would be great if we buy him, it's his playground. =D

Not Played.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

You're just making stuff up. Liverpool MAY(don't trust quotes like this) have known about his knees. You didn't. Nobody did. Torres had scored 65 goals in 102 games at Liverpool including 18 in 22 the year before. . He started slowly for Liverpool after his surgery which was to be expected, but he was starting to come on well before we signed him. He scored 1 goal in his first 8 games in the Premier League and then 8 in 15 afterwards including killing us with two. He looked fabulous against us. His runs, his touches, his finishing. It looked like he was just coming back from surgery and was back to where he was before it.This idea that everyone knew that Torres was going to fail is revisionist nonsense. In fact, Torres was much more likely to succeed at that point than Falcao would be coming in as Torres had already proven himself in the Premier League-was PFA team of the year 2 of his 3 years at Liverpool. I never liked the signing because I hate January signings and huge dollar signings have a very high chance of failing, but Torres was still thought of as en elite striker at that point.

you should read this...

http://www.weaintgotnohistory.com/2012/12/20/3785988/falcao-fernando-torres-scoring-against-weak-opponents-chelsea-liverpool-atletico-madrid

[Beepu 1,714]

Im torn, a part of me would love to see Falcao play for us, but the squad needs reinforcements in other areas as well. I mean it doesnt say anywhere that if we get Falcao it will only be Falcao, we dont know the financial structure of the club so we as fans can only assume that the club wont splash that much in jan. Falcao though is the probably the best out and out striker at the moment.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

you should read this...

http://www.weaintgotnohistory.com/2012/12/20/3785988/falcao-fernando-torres-scoring-against-weak-opponents-chelsea-liverpool-atletico-madrid

First off, no matter what you think of the piece, it doesn't change the fact that all this is retroactive. If Falcao or whoever came here and failed we could go back like this and find the reasons why afterwards as well. (Language barrier, playing style, coaching tactics, inexperience in the Champions League, whatever, there are always possible reasons/excuses). Now, on the piece itself. So many problems, the piece was written to try to prove a point, but here a few obvious problems...

1) Why count 1.5 years of Torres? You can count post-injury or something and it would make some sense even though that's a small sample size. The only reason the writer chose that 1.5 year period is because the year before Torres scored against Spurs, Arsenal, Chelsea, ManU, Everton, and Real Madrid among others which blows his nonsense out of the water. The year before that, he scored against Chelsea, Inter, Porto, Spurs, etc...Torres was with Liverpool for 3.5 years and scored against many many top sides. Saying Torres didn't score against top teams before he joined us is just being dishonest

2) You can't count every game as equal. Torres scored two goals against us in an important league game. Falcao scored a hattrick in a meaningless exhibition game which our players never showed up for. Scoring in the Champions League is harder than scoring in the Europa League where many top teams don't even play their top players, scoring the 5th goal in a 5-1 game is not the same as scoring the winner in a 1-0 game and so on...and you certainly can't count our game against Athletico as a real game and then not count the Community Shield as one (because Torres scored against City which again goes against the author's point in writing this)

3) Probably the biggest problem-This is what it's like with almost all strikers. Torres has been spectacularly bad against decent clubs post-transfer, but his record pre-transfer was normal for a top striker. He scored some goals in big games (Chelsea, Benfica, ManU, etc...) and scored most of his goals against poor teams. Strikers score way more goals against worse opposition because worse opposition lets in more goals. For example Falcao's 17 league goals this year, 8 came in two games against the two worst defensive sides in La Liga . That's the way it works.

That's not to say that Torres is good enough or anything. He does pretty much only score against poor opposition and has been like that since he joined us, but was not when he was at Liverpool. Falcao would be much better than Torres without much doubt, but that's not the point. . You keep trying to create this alternate world where everyone should have known that Torres was going to fail. It wasn't like that. Torres was widely considered one of the best strikers in the world when he bought him and yes, he failed. Lots of players fail. And that's the point. Players disappoint, players get hurt, players need time to adjust and for Falcao to be worth his 50M pounds and what would be a massive wage bill, he would have to score 25-30 goals a year every single season for the length of his contract. The chances of Falcao being worth what we pay for him would be slim. The chance of it being a big mistake are relatively large and the cost would be massive (look how much Torres has cost this club). In the era of FFP and with a team with multiple holes, it simply doesn't make sense to take such a massive risk.

[ulsterchelsea 3,221]

I laugh when people talk about his age.....he's 27 for gods sake, probably hasn't even peaked yet.

[The Skipper 20,593]

I laugh when people talk about his age.....he's 27 for gods sake, probably hasn't even peaked yet.

He's 26.

[ulsterchelsea 3,221]

He's 26.

right! Doesn't change my point