Radamel Falcao

[The only place to be 11,313]

^ van Persie is 29, was he worth the £24m?.. If we're talking about a Fifa 13 career mode then I'd agree with the 'downhill' comment. As much as I want Lukaku to be the main man, we need to keep an eye on the average age and of course 'winning things... NOW', which players in their prime/at their peak can do for you.

Although yes, we don't have a good track record for big buys, so maybe the pessimism is justified, but still..

So average age wins you cups? I thought it was talent, passion, attitude and skill.

Basically Lukaku's problem isn't in his feet or his heart - it's is birth certificate. If only he was older, because that's what people actually mean. They don't mean experience, because until he comes to Chelsea he'll never have the experience of playing in the Champions League. He'll never have the experience of leading the line not just for a big club, but for the club he loves.

I'd buy into the bullshit about him needing more experience if the people saying it were talking about him getting a loan at a comparable club (ya know, to earn XP) and not sticking around at fucking West Brom.

As for the average age, we have Cech, Cole, Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill, Luiz, Mikel, Ramires, Mata and Ba who are all around 25-33 at the start of next year. This idea that signing a 27 year old Columbian who is completely unproven in the Premier League is going to be a better bet than going with a player we already own who will probably end up on 15-20 goals in his first proper season in the league (despite limited minutes) is not something I personally agree with and I don't want to see my club going down that route again.

[themightyblue 443]

So average age wins you cups? I thought it was talent, passion, attitude and skill.

Basically Lukaku's problem isn't in his feet or his heart - it's is birth certificate. If only he was older, because that's what people actually mean. They don't mean experience, because until he comes to Chelsea he'll never have the experience of playing in the Champions League. He'll never have the experience of leading the line not just for a big club, but for the club he loves.

I'd buy into the bullshit about him needing more experience if the people saying it were talking about him getting a loan at a comparable club (ya know, to earn XP) and not sticking around at fucking West Brom.

As for the average age, we have Cech, Cole, Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill, Luiz, Mikel, Ramires, Mata and Ba who are all around 25-33 at the start of next year. This idea that signing a 27 year old Columbian who is completely unproven in the Premier League is going to be a better bet than going with a player we already own who will probably end up on 15-20 goals in his first proper season in the league (despite limited minutes) is not something I personally agree with and I don't want to see my club going down that route again.

Well you've completely missed the point if you think birth certificate is the problem.

[English Freak 456]

So average age wins you cups? I thought it was talent, passion, attitude and skill.

Basically Lukaku's problem isn't in his feet or his heart - it's is birth certificate. If only he was older, because that's what people actually mean. They don't mean experience, because until he comes to Chelsea he'll never have the experience of playing in the Champions League. He'll never have the experience of leading the line not just for a big club, but for the club he loves.

I'd buy into the bullshit about him needing more experience if the people saying it were talking about him getting a loan at a comparable club (ya know, to earn XP) and not sticking around at fucking West Brom.

As for the average age, we have Cech, Cole, Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill, Luiz, Mikel, Ramires, Mata and Ba who are all around 25-33 at the start of next year. This idea that signing a 27 year old Columbian who is completely unproven in the Premier League is going to be a better bet than going with a player we already own who will probably end up on 15-20 goals in his first proper season in the league (despite limited minutes) is not something I personally agree with and I don't want to see my club going down that route again.

Whats your opinion on Jovetic (playing for Fiorentina)? He's got a release clause of 30 million euros, talented 23 year old player....

[Styles 9,790]

The club's obsession with the obvious big name strikers is just plain pathetic. There's a cheaper option out there in Lewandowski, who fits into the playing style we're trying to implement perfectly and yet we don't even seem to be pursuing him!

Which is weird because Lewandowski is a pretty big name itself

[The only place to be 11,313]

Whats your opinion on Jovetic (playing for Fiorentina)? He's got a release clause of 30 million euros, talented 23 year old player....

Has the ability to be that swing striker who can do a job from wide as well as leading the line in 15-20 games, but everytime I think about that position I wonder why Moses hasn't been given a go. When he was at Wigan he excelled at playing on the break against teams who had pushed up. Then when he came to us he showed an ability to break down teams who sat deeper, beating the first man and forcing them to re-organise. I'd love to see what he could do in another position for us, running the channels and holding the ball up.

Jovetic deserves a lot of credit for coming back from that injury though. It shows a lot of character to come back arguably better than you were before you got injured, but it's still a lot of money to fill a position that we arguably already have solutions in. Until we get that midfield sorted, anything else runs the risk of being superfluous decoration.

[Beepu 1,714]

#ermahgerd #yes #intorreswetrust

On a serious note , no sane club would take that big of a risk signing Falcao (:

What the hell is up with these hashtags! Its everywhere from facebook to this thread! Sounds like 13 year old testosterone filled boys and giggly trashy girls when people use it.

Look, if we were going to buy Falcao, he should've been bought when he was leaving Porto. End of story.

Buying him now makes no sense because:

1. As good as he is, I don't believe he's going to get any better, because...

2. He's fucking 27. Best case scenario, you'd a get a good 3 or so years out of him and then it's downhill. Which brings me nicely to:

3. Have we seriously not learned anything from Sheva and Torres? Do we really want to go down this route when such money is need in just about every other position on the god damn pitch? Well the board have already proven to be incompetent...

4. FFP.

5. I'm also sick of the likes of Porto and Atletico jacking up the prices of players to super-over-inflated levels. I know they need the money, but come on. The Hulk transfer in particular made me sick. Never wanted him, never rated him and is probably the most predictable player in world football, but they were determined to get £40m. Benfica too with Witsel, one season he had, one season and bang, £33 million. His initial price they paid (£6m), quintupled! Pure and utter greed. Though maybe I'm complaining more about Zenit with those examples..

And most importantly:

5 .We already have Lukaku and Ba. Lukaku in particular, is willing to bleed for the club, is young, hungry and not a mercenary, which is nearly impossible for a club like us to come by, let's be honest. He cared about us long before we smacked a big fat contract in front of him.

Exactly what ive been thinking! great points.

[Korea 734]

I love how all of a sudden when Falcao doesn't score lots of goals, none of you guys want him, when months earlier you were drooling over him...

[bushman 2,043]

Falcao at € 60 million is not worth it. Apparently, Chelsea have baulked at meeting the price. Hurray, I feel.

Perhaps, common sense have prevailed especially with UEFA´s FFP about to kick in.

[gary gordon 1,777]

Over this bloke. The only reason he gets so much attention is because he's the only player outside barca or real that does anything. If he played for either team, he wouldn't be worth as much. Look at David villa before he went to barca, everybody wanted him. Now you could probably pick him up for half the price barca payed.

[The Mak 4,459]

Conversely.

In those 3 years he could be the difference between winning nothing and winning the League/CL or whatever. Much like RVP has done for United this season despite being injury prone, costing 24m in the last year of his contract and being 29. Also Falcao's game isn't really based around pace or strength. It's much more about his movement, positioning and finishing and so we would probably be able to sneak out more than 3 years

Were Torres and Sheva really at the top of their games when we bought them and not on the verge of becoming washed up? Also with Sheva he was just managed horribly with us playing him out wide at times etc. I very much doubt we'd do the same with Falcao

Honestly we have no clue about the clubs finances, how much we'll make from pre-season tours, sponsorship deals like Gazprom, which high earners will be leaving this summer. Pointless speculating on FFP as only the club truly knows what we can and can't spend, and if we do spend the money on Falcao it'll be because it's within our financial restraints.

That's what a great scouting network can do for you

But then it can also be argued that none of them have experience of leading the line of a top level club like ourselves, where the pressure is much higher and defences are a lot more stubborn. Ba hasn't really been given much chance, and if you believe he has been given a chance then his return has been poor in terms of goals. Lukaku is the interesting as i'm open to him returning, but we must remember he is only 19 and at that age the best thing for him will be playing week in week out so that he gains more experience and valuable play time. Despite his amazing loan at WBA, playing for Chelsea is completely different kettle of fish and the pressure, intensity and scrutiny of playing for us is massive. The kid has time on his side. Even if he doesn't come back next season, i'm pretty sure we signed Ba on a 3 year deal with Lukaku in mind so that he can be a stop gap to allow Lukaku to develop and perfect his game so that he really is ready to come back and make his mark at Chelsea. Before this burst of form he's had over these past couple of weeks, i'm pretty sure most of us were wanting him on loan for another season as there were still many deficiencies in his game

I'll admit I was first against Lukaku coming back next season when I heard about it, but I've been convinced otherwise by many on here. I would've liked us to get Cavani, send Lukaku back on loan for at least one more season etc.

For me though, when seeing players like Falcao, Cavani, Witsel etc. I've always thought "Why the hell couldn't Chelsea take a chance on these guys before they were snapped up by the likes of Porto and Benfica?". I mean, they obviously had all the tools, perhaps they were even on our radar (I'd hope for our scouting system they were) beforehand, but we didn't take a chance on them because we're a big bunch of pussies who are scared of Roman. Try telling Roman that the new striker you signed needs a year or two to adapt...I'm sure he'd respond with a nice pinkslip.

That's whats always annoyed me about our club. I know it's because we're big, demand success every year etc. but fuck me, imagine we were the ones who snapped up Cavani/Falcao for little or nothing, took a chance on them and they turned out to be the absolute beasts they are today, I'm pretty sure it'd be worth the wait. This is where I'm coming from with Lukaku, don't you believe he'd be worth the wait? And I don't believe the likes of Falcao/Cavani would be under nearly as much pressure here if they were snapped up from relatively small teams, look at Hernandez for example. It's always been about the price tag and reputation that create's the pressure, which not a factor when you get them early (just like Wenger! ). If anything, the club is praised for taking a chance on an unknown (Hernandez).

Now is great timing for us to put faith in Lukaku as well because more faces will be going out in the near future (Lamps & maybe JT), and more coming in, so our whole squad will have to get used to each other over the next two or three seasons or so. So I don't see why we can't hand regular game time to develop a talent like Lukaku during this time. He also seems very strong mentally. He said in his recent Belgian interview he needed to be for last year...I also liked the sly dig at Torres, along the lines of "If you stop caring, you should quit".

Also, when I talk about Sheva and Torres, I'm not doubting Falcao abilities, not for a second. I believe the man would bang in goals no matter where he is. I'm just saying in terms of our priorities, other areas of the pitch are desperately in need of investment, particularly a world class DLP and DM. Look at the Torres situation. We signed him because the cracks were starting to show in the squad; there was a massive job that needed to be done in the near future and we were lazy and just thought we could put a big, fat, spanish, ladyboy bandage over it, and it'll be fine for another few years, which backfired spectacularly. Fact is, if we can afford him or not, it still takes away investment from the rest of the squad, which I just don't see as an option anymore. We need to learn at some point that buying a big name striker does not guarantee success.

[Korea 734]

Over this bloke. The only reason he gets so much attention is because he's the only player outside barca or real that does anything. If he played for either team, he wouldn't be worth as much. Look at David villa before he went to barca, everybody wanted him. Now you could probably pick him up for half the price barca payed.

That's cause Messi is playing in his position and he got injured.

If any center forward went to Barca, they would end up like Villa or Sanchez...

[Jase 43,479]

Which is weird because Lewandowski is a pretty big name itself

Notice that I said "obvious big name strikers".

[Santiago. 1,500]

That's cause Messi is playing in his position and he got injured.

If any center forward went to Barca, they would end up like Villa or Sanchez...

Villas has been quality for them. It's just a shame that broken leg left him out for half a year

[Leif 6,006]

He scores. That's it. He offers nothing else. Our team doesn't need JUST a goalscorer though. Porto and Atletico played FOR and TO Falcao and DEPENDED on him - hence his high goal output. We never do that though. We never depend on our strikers like every other top team seems to do. We've always had goals coming from midfield; from Di Matteo (not so much), to Lampard, to Mata. It's what makes us Chelsea - everyone chips in; just like Ramires's goal vs. Barcelona (PUN INTENDED!!!)

The reason lots of us seem to desire Falcao is because he scores loads compared to Torres who just doesn't score - and also offers very little else. But what happens if Falcao comes and goes on a dry-spell of not scoring? He can't hold up play like Drogba, dribble and assist like Zola, bully defenders like JFH etc. Without his finishing, he will offer the same to us as what Torres currently offers.

When it comes to other players though; Jovetic is more the Zola type who can contribute with assists, taking free-kicks etc. if his scoring boots just stop working. Lewandowski helps build-up play tremendously. Cavani is the closest player to Drogba I've ever seen - He works tirelessly, bullies the opposition, wins aerial duels, helps defend set-pieces etc.

We simply must invest in a complete player again to, not replace Drogba, but fill his void.

We can't put all the faults on Falcao (in theory) though or even Torres. Any poacher-like player at this club is destined to fail - for the exact reason I started with. We play for eachother on the pitch and not solely for the striker. The only way a Falcao-type player will work here is if we invest in a proper playmaker to play central, get a top class winger for the right hand-side, and our players learn how to get the ball to the striker more (which we fail to do even with Ba up-top.)

Cavani would be at the top of my list IF we get someone and don't throw Lukaku into the deep end. Failing that, I'd want our scout team to grow some balls and gamble on lesser known player perhaps from Ligue 1 or Holland who fits the bill.

[Korea 734]

Villas has been quality for them. It's just a shame that broken leg left him out for half a year

Beautiful Strike vs Arsenal.

[Santiago. 1,500]

Beautiful Strike vs Arsenal.

Beautiful strike vs Madrid, United, Madrid again, Atletico, Milan, etc

[Korea 734]

You know what kind of weird, the fact Atletico has produced top forward for the past couple of years....

Torres

Aguero

Forlan

Falcao

[Santiago. 1,500]

You know what kind of weird, the fact Atletico has produced top forward for the past couple of years....

Torres

Aguero

Forlan

Falcao

Wouldn't say Forlan or Falcao as they already were quality before they came