Chelsea Transfers

[King Kante 1,540]

4 hours ago, Jase said:

Was wondering where have you been. 🤣

Yeah, I had to take a break from the nonsense I was reading about how Lukaku had turned into a top CF by beating up on Serie A sides. 

[DDA 9,758]

Admittedly Lukaku has looked shite since joining us but he has to come good... he just has too.

[Tomo 21,741]

Stick to the false 9 and get Raphinha in next summer.

Lukaku can play a part till then then go wherever Conte is.

Edited October 31, 2021 by Tomo

[King Kante 1,540]

On 31/10/2021 at 13:50, DDA said:

Admittedly Lukaku has looked shite since joining us but he has to come good... he just has too.

Honestly buddy, I wouldn't hold your breath. This is how he played at Utd and Inter. Only reason people got excited about him at Inter was due to him playing against weaker teams and only looking at stats/highlights. 

Edited November 1, 2021 by King Kante

[Magic Lamps 11,677]

On 31/10/2021 at 18:32, Tomo said:

Stick to the false 9 and get Raphinha in next summer.

Lukaku can play a part till then then go wherever Conte is.

Raphinha is an interesting player but not really the level we should be aspiring.

We will never get even a fraction of his value back. The club was fully aware that this might very well be 200m down the drain but they desperately wanted to back TT to keep us on track to win more big titles. they thought Lukaku wold be the one to deliver them. Ironically we have looked our best this season without Lukaku and without a traditional no.9. the pressure to play Rom could well cost us points. Highly skilled defenders have usually rendered him ineffective in big games on int level as well as for Juve or ManUre. Lukaku can still be useful in certain situations but we have to believe in the gameplan we have had under TT before his arrival, especially in the big games.

[NikkiCFC 8,097]

20 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

Raphinha is an interesting player but not really the level we should be aspiring.

Should not we found new Mane, Salah instead of buying new winger for 100m like Chiesa which is unrealistic in any possible way?

We are scouting Raphinha since his Portugal days... 10 goals and 9 assists in PL in minutes equal to 35 games is amazing return for a winger. I think he has ability to play for Chelsea.

But I also believe in CHO and Pulisic.

 

[King Kante 1,540]

36 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

Raphinha is an interesting player but not really the level we should be aspiring.

We will never get even a fraction of his value back. The club was fully aware that this might very well be 200m down the drain but they desperately wanted to back TT to keep us on track to win more big titles. they thought Lukaku wold be the one to deliver them. Ironically we have looked our best this season without Lukaku and without a traditional no.9. the pressure to play Rom could well cost us points. Highly skilled defenders have usually rendered him ineffective in big games on int level as well as for Juve or ManUre. Lukaku can still be useful in certain situations but we have to believe in the gameplan we have had under TT before his arrival, especially in the big games.

I thought the same but have watched him a bit more recently and have been impressed with him as his close control is good, he has a good shot on him, presses well and he always will to take someone on. Will he be a world class player? Probably not, but I can see him being productive. Only issue I see is how he would handle low block defences as he won't get the space he gets at Leeds at a top 4/6 side. 

One thing that really stands out for him about him however is how determined he is. He gets some rough treatment at times but still picks himself up and gets on with his game. This I feel is a bit of an underappriciated quality and something that non-PL players can take a while to deal with. For instance, Werner is a prime example of someone who seems pretty overawed/scared by the intensity of the league. 

As for Lukaku, 100% agree, he shouldn't be in the starting XI against the good teams as his limitations and lack of pressing make him a passenger. I was telling everyone he was still a the same player as he was at Utd when we were linked but they obviously got carried away by some Youtube videos or simply don't understand football. Insane transfer with the money he cost, his age and wage. 

Edited November 2, 2021 by King Kante

[Magic Lamps 11,677]

15 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

Should not we found new Mane, Salah instead of buying new winger for 100m like Chiesa which is unrealistic in any possible way?

We are scouting Raphinha since his Portugal days... 10 goals and 9 assists in PL in minutes equal to 35 games is amazing return for a winger. I think he has ability to play for Chelsea.

But I also believe in CHO and Pulisic.

 

We found the real Salah and still sold him. This club is not the right environment for slow starters to reach their full potential.

Mane is a better shot, he was the same age as Raphinha is now when he moved to Liverpool.

14 hours ago, King Kante said:

I thought the same but have watched him a bit more recently and have been impressed with him as his close control is good, he has a good shot on him, presses well and he always will to take someone on. Will he be a world class player? Probably not, but I can see him being productive. Only issue I see is how he would handle low block defences as he won't get the space he gets at Leeds at a top 4/6 side. 

One thing that really stands out for him about him however is how determined he is. He gets some rough treatment at times but still picks himself up and gets on with his game. This I feel is a bit of an underappriciated quality and something that non-PL players can take a while to deal with. For instance, Werner is a prime example of someone who seems pretty overawed/scared by the intensity of the league. 

As for Lukaku, 100% agree, he shouldn't be in the starting XI against the good teams as his limitations and lack of pressing make him a passenger. I was telling everyone he was still a the same player as he was at Utd when we were linked but they obviously got carried away by some Youtube videos or simply don't understand football. Insane transfer with the money he cost, his age and wage. 

I take your word for it. Only followed Raphinha once he joined the PL and was impressed with his pace and shooting but didn't think the full package is significantly above average. I thought there are quite a few prospects at this level in the league thinking of Sarr, Jota, Greenwood, Martial, Barnes. I guess we will see but I doubt the club will ever go in for Raphinha. But what you mention, his ability to take a hit and carry on combined with his pace and technique is something that makes mane and salah (only outside the box lol) so devastating.

[robsblubot 3,595]

Lukaku is now unsellable at this current wages. It's the max he will ever make and pretty absurd in my view.

I see this Duvan from Atalanta and he looks twice the player Lukaku is - fantastic first touch too.

[!Hazard! 3,394]

Chiesa is the real deal

[OhForAGreavsie 5,904]

On 02/11/2021 at 01:08, King Kante said:

I was telling everyone [Lukaku] was still a the same player as he was at Utd when we were linked but they obviously got carried away by some Youtube videos or simply don't understand football. Insane transfer with the money he cost, his age and wage. 

I read posts in the summer about special training Antonio had put on to help Rom improve his touch, and about how these sessions had produced a miraculous transformation. I tried to get people to understand that the mere fact that the sessions were even necessary at the age of 28 simply proved how right I was in 2011 when I said Rom's touch would never improve. That's the point. I wasn't saying last summer that Rom's touch would be the same in 2021, I was saying that a decade ago.

This isn't because of any genius predictive powers on my part. It's simply that I accept a reality which many people can't buy into. Namely that players cannot improve their basic talent level. The Messi argument is irrefutable. If players can improve their basic levels then why doesn't everyone simply practice until they're as good as Leo? The truth is that if you ain't got it, you ain't got it.

Now, just because Rom lacks some things does not mean that he lacks everything. Think for example of the beautiful second goal against Villa. Minimal back lift with perfect timing to turn the keeper into a spectator and smack the ball into the net. Wonderful play. Evidence that, as you point out, there are situations where Rom can be a weapon. Whatever points we choose to make here, at Stamford Bridge and elsewhere, Chelsea fans have everything to gain and nothing to lose by being100% behind the player.

Edited November 4, 2021 by OhForAGreavsie

[Pizy 18,538]

People really need to cool it with writing Lukaku off as a mistake already. You wouldn’t write off Kane who’s having a miserable season or Messi who hasn’t done a thing at PSG yet just because they’re in a rough patch.

I’d give him a whole season before truly judging him. Plus, we can be 100% sure he isn’t a player like Morata or Torres who will mentally collapse if things are going poorly. He’s got that killer mentality from Inter and will be determined to fight through poor form.

[Alabama 1,992]

40 minutes ago, Pizy said:

People really need to cool it with writing Lukaku off as a mistake already. You wouldn’t write off Kane who’s having a miserable season or Messi who hasn’t done a thing at PSG yet just because they’re in a rough patch.

I’d give him a whole season before truly judging him. Plus, we can be 100% sure he isn’t a player like Morata or Torres who will mentally collapse if things are going poorly. He’s got that killer mentality from Inter and will be determined to fight through poor form.

Finally a sane post...

[Jase 43,479]

1 hour ago, Pizy said:

People really need to cool it with writing Lukaku off as a mistake already. You wouldn’t write off Kane who’s having a miserable season or Messi who hasn’t done a thing at PSG yet just because they’re in a rough patch.

I’d give him a whole season before truly judging him. Plus, we can be 100% sure he isn’t a player like Morata or Torres who will mentally collapse if things are going poorly. He’s got that killer mentality from Inter and will be determined to fight through poor form.

Not saying your notion is necessarily wrong but you're comparing players who are going through poor spells for different reasons.

[King Kante 1,540]

3 hours ago, Pizy said:

People really need to cool it with writing Lukaku off as a mistake already. You wouldn’t write off Kane who’s having a miserable season or Messi who hasn’t done a thing at PSG yet just because they’re in a rough patch.

I’d give him a whole season before truly judging him. Plus, we can be 100% sure he isn’t a player like Morata or Torres who will mentally collapse if things are going poorly. He’s got that killer mentality from Inter and will be determined to fight through poor form.

Unfortunately Lukaku is a known quantity. This isn't like a Harvetz/Salah/KdB etc situation where they were young boys and needed time to acclimatise. Furthermore, this isn't even a Werner sort of situation where you should allow someone time to adapt as they've no experience of the league. 

Lukaku is 28 and has plenty of experience of the PL. He is as close of a plug and play type of signing as you can get. What people such as myself and @OhForAGreavsie are saying is that the level that we're getting out of Lukaku is what we said his level would be due to his technical limitations. The kind of performances you're seeing is what his level is and he hasn't ever shown anything else apart from a rare performance/moment here or there. 

What happened this Summer however was a lot of people drunk the Koolaid and thought that Conte had performed some sort of voodoo magic spell and transformed his technique. As @OhForAGreavsie says, it didn't take a stroke of genius to know this was nonsense. 

I mean even his stats weren't that great as in Serie A even 39/40 year old Zlatan, who only has one knee now, was posting similar stats to him (and he was in a worse team) whilst this season Giroud on a minute to minute basis is also outperforming him and Giroud doesn't even take penos. 

[Pizy 18,538]

Still think Rom hits 20 PL goals by seasons end. The question has to be whether we can win the PL with him as our primary striker and I think the answer is yes as long as the team around him maintains the level we see now.

Would I prefer a different sort of striker? Probably so. But it’s not like we had many options. 

[OhForAGreavsie 5,904]

34 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Still think Rom hits 20 PL goals by seasons end. The question has to be whether we can win the PL with him as our primary striker and I think the answer is yes as long as the team around him maintains the level we see now.

Would I prefer a different sort of striker? Probably so. But it’s not like we had many options. 

I think you're right that Rom can contribute. Though he is now a little off the pace for 20 PL goals this season it's not impossible for him to catch up. In any case, 18, 19 or 20 goals is not likely to be the deal breaker for our title hopes. I would not have signed Rom and was disappointed when we did but he's far from a 0/10 player.

[NikkiCFC 8,097]

We can win title even if Lukaku score zero goals if our defence is on this level all season.