Gonzalo Higuain

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

Would of been a good move. Club having a laugh surely? Sarri wanted him, yes he doesn’t like the market and finds it boring but Morata Higuain and Giroud is a good selection. Good to see the board seeming to know more than the manager as per usual. 

[Jase 43,479]

3 hours ago, OneMoSalah said:

Would of been a good move. Club having a laugh surely? Sarri wanted him, yes he doesn’t like the market and finds it boring but Morata Higuain and Giroud is a good selection. Good to see the board seeming to know more than the manager as per usual. 

In this case, I'm not sure if the board can be blamed for not wanting to spend big on a striker on the wrong side of 30. Last January's reluctance to sign Dzeko should have served as a warning of sort. If anything and as always, it's the board incompetence in finding better alternatives that is the problem.

[xPetrCechx 13,573]

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

2 hours ago, Jason said:

In this case, I'm not sure if the board can be blamed for not wanting to spend big on a striker on the wrong side of 30. Last January's reluctance to sign Dzeko should have served as a warning of sort. If anything and as always, it's the board incompetence in finding better alternatives that is the problem.

True but again Sarri asked for him. Like Jorginho and Rugani. I think he should be given a few to integrate his style faster. Higuain 30 or not provides 15-20 goals guaranteed. Has done for almost the last 10 years of his career. Would be same with if we signed Cavani, goals guaranteed. Sure price maybe went against him but wouldn’t have been a bad move. 

[Henrique 9,133]

On 02/08/2018 at 7:38 AM, ulsterchelsea said:

We ain't signing a top striker in 9 days. There isn't that many top ,top strikers out there, then add to that marinas HORRENDOUSLY slow/tedious/ineffective/penny pinching buying technique and you realise we've no mission 

Higuain is a not a top striker in my books, I mean, don't see him as an improvement on Morata, Giroud and Batshuay to justify the 50m price tag.

[Clockwork 1,794]

29 minutes ago, Henrique said:

Higuain is a not a top striker in my books, I mean, don't see him as an improvement on Morata, Giroud and Batshuay to justify the 50m price tag.

imo he is improvement over our strikers. Over the last 10 years he has averaged 21 league goals. I don't know if he is a top striker depending on your definition, but he is consistent. Cant say about our current ones.

It is not a good market for strikers, even Real are desperately looking for an improvement over Benzema.  

[zekinjo 449]

On 8/2/2018 at 5:44 AM, Unionjack said:

Story of our fuckin life I'm afraid. And I cant see it changing anytime soon.

That’s why they’ve brought in Sarri. He’s a perfect yes man coach. Chelsea will play nice football but will lack that extra quality for big things. There will be no marquee signings, mostly solid or average UK players and at best some solid players from other Leagues. Sarri is already almost 60. Who can really tell which month or year Roman will sack him or when he’ll retire. Highly doubt he’ll coach for many more years. 

[Unionjack 7,531]

I still say we shoulda got him

Higuain told Mertens: 'I am joining Chelsea' before AC Milan move

https://www.calciomercato.com/en/news/higuain-told-mertens-i-am-joining-chelsea-before-ac-milan-move-41172

[robsblubot 3,595]

heh let this one pass...

football has changed and it's simply no longer as important for the strikers to be the sole source of goals. CL has been dominated by a team with Benzema up front, who's more of a setter holder than proper striker. WC was won by a team whose striker did not score a single goal during the competition (happens to be in our roster).

Really really top strikers and goal scorers are a an extremely rare product and only a few teams have - and won't let them go very easy.

Having a player like Morata, who's not a prolific scorer, but contributes to the team is absolutely fine IMO. 

[Vesper 30,224]

3 hours ago, Robguima said:

CL has been dominated by a team with Benzema up front, who's more of a setter holder than proper striker.

Benzema had a 10 year run (ending in 2016/17) where he averaged almost 25 goals and around 12 assists per season, twice going over 30 goals. If we got that for 5 or 6 years out of Morata, I would THRILLED.

[robsblubot 3,595]

13 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Benzema had a 10 year run (ending in 2016/17) where he averaged almost 25 goals and around 12 assists per season, twice going over 30 goals. If we got that for 5 or 6 years out of Morata, I would THRILLED.

sure, that'd be great, but hard and expensive to find. Not sure Higuain is that either. My point is that it's not a necessity. RM did not drop Benzema when he stopped scoring, which has been quite a while. They like what he does on the pitch even when he does not score.

My second point is that when you employ a striker who's only a goal scorer, which also applies to other strikers like lukaku, you gain some but also lose some. Great if they are scoring, but close to a liability when they are not. With many teams playing with mobile strikers, or (real :)) false nines, I just feel this idea of having a striker responsible for most of the goals is passe. For ex, Firmino is far more of a Morata type than a Higuain or Lukaku. He scores few goals and works well in that system because the team is good and the players around him gel well with his style of play.

Now, of course, we could discuss whether we have enough goal scorers in the squad right now. Or whether the style in which we now play could actually help our attackers in terms of scoring goals. Reckon we will find out very soon.

[Vesper 30,224]

57 minutes ago, Robguima said:

sure, that'd be great, but hard and expensive to find. Not sure Higuain is that either. My point is that it's not a necessity. RM did not drop Benzema when he stopped scoring, which has been quite a while. They like what he does on the pitch even when he does not score.

My second point is that when you employ a striker who's only a goal scorer, which also applies to other strikers like lukaku, you gain some but also lose some. Great if they are scoring, but close to a liability when they are not. With many teams playing with mobile strikers, or (real :)) false nines, I just feel this idea of having a striker responsible for most of the goals is passe. For ex, Firmino is far more of a Morata type than a Higuain or Lukaku. He scores few goals and works well in that system because the team is good and the players around him gel well with his style of play.

Now, of course, we could discuss whether we have enough goal scorers in the squad right now. Or whether the style in which we now play could actually help our attackers in terms of scoring goals. Reckon we will find out very soon.

Roberto Firmino scored 27 goals last year and had 17 assists. He is far beyond most strikers in the world in offensive output and talent atm.

The only other strikers/secondary strikers I would rate over him atm are (in no order) Dybala, Mbappe, Kane, Greizmann, Icardi and maybe Lewandowski. As usual I leave out Ronaldo and Messi from debate.

[robsblubot 3,595]

10 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Roberto Firmino scored 27 goals last year and had 17 assists. He is far beyond most strikers in the world in offensive output and talent atm.

The only other strikers/secondary strikers I would rate over him atm are (in no order) Dybala, Mbappe, Kane, Greizmann, Icardi and maybe Lewandowski. As usual I leave out Ronaldo and Messi from debate.

yeah good point. Then again, that was last season. Go back enough and he has few goals and still plays and is not sold to buy a "proper" striker.

There are personal preferences at play here. I have no problem if the club can sign Luis Suarez or Lewandowski (who tends to vanish in tough matches in CL), but those folks are not available. Lukaku, Higuain, they are not better than what we have, just different.

[Vesper 30,224]

On 25/08/2018 at 2:26 AM, Robguima said:

yeah good point. Then again, that was last season. Go back enough and he has few goals and still plays and is not sold to buy a "proper" striker.

There are personal preferences at play here. I have no problem if the club can sign Luis Suarez or Lewandowski (who tends to vanish in tough matches in CL), but those folks are not available. Lukaku, Higuain, they are not better than what we have, just different.

There are so few options left for us at striker.

Icardi, but we blew it by not hitting his £98m 2 weeks in July 2018 release clause (it goes up each year)

Martial, another cockup with the failed Willian plus cash swap

 Ciro Immobile, who turns 30 in February 2020 (so long term contract issue), and if Lazio loses SMS next summer, zero chance they also let Ciro go in same window

Then 2 speculative ones

Timo Werner

Andrea Belotti

Both of whom have yet to show they are the long term real deals. If Werner shows huge this year, Bayern will grab him.

That's it. All others will not be sold to us unless we bid INSANE money (and probably not even then, especially if we again have no CL) or are 30yo or older (Lewa, Higs, Cavani, Suarez, etc).

It's basically Morata or bust, with Martial (put back to his original number 9 position) or a rebounded Belotti as only realistic alternatives. After that is basically rent an ageing star time. Plus we have all the other (or most) top 10 to 15 clubs to fight with.

Wild card 

Lautaro Martínez 21yo Inter phenom. He looks spectacular so far. Inter might be willing to part with Icardi if he continues to progress. But I think Icardi 2019 RC will go up to £140m or so if he signs a new contract this year. Zero chance we spend that much, even if we have to sell Hazard next summer (the nightmare there is that we get raped Courtois-style with Eden, maybe only getting £90m or even less as he can leave on a free in 22 months). This season and next are also Hazard's last 2 full years before he too hits 30.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

 

[the wes 7,212]

According to di marzio website that Chelsea are interested in Higuain

 

https://gianlucadimarzio.com/en/chelsea-pondering-move-for-milans-striker-higuain

[xPetrCechx 13,573]

Gattuso on Higuain-Morata swap deal: "I am keeping Higuain close to me. I don’t understand the market rumours about him. He’s not having a great time of it, like the rest of the team, but we’re fourth in the table and therefore we must give it as little thought as possible."

Gattuso: "No disrespect to your ( journalists) work but as far as I know Chelsea haven't bought any over-30 players in the last few years. It is normal that on a mental level Higuain feels the absence of his goals and is not in a positive moment."

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Yes lets get another low confidence plagued striker who is also 31 years old and super slow. 

 

[blues.bridge 343]

if we take higuain, I give up! I will start to watch only "CURLING"!

[Marvin123 537]

Is this one of those planted stories to help hurry along other negotiations. Or was the Wilson story a plant? Hmmmm