Barrettinator

Suarez didn't have that magic in him early on either. It takes a bit more time for some players to get it. But he's getting more and more consistent so that will come. To my knowledge, that doesn't exist in Italy.

I'm actually not kidding. He has broken several stories other outlets like BBC and Sky ended up playing catch up to. As I was saying to another poster in another thread, I first knew about him when he broke the Martial to United story and people thought he was talking out his arse. Suddenly it was happening and every other outlet was playing catch up. And he hasn't put a foot wrong since. Luiz to Chelsea story before anyone last summer as well. I can go on and on. But you're free to disregard.

Most reliable journo you'll find on twitter. Never gotten any reporting wrong.

Conte annoyed we missed out on Lukaku and we're stalling on the Sandro deal. Rightly so. Apparently, he has returned form his holiday this weekend. Should storm into Marina's condo bare chested with the blood of a grizzly bear all over his head and chest and scare her into f**king getting her head right in the market. Bonus point if he does it to Emenalo too.

Pedro most likely wouldn't go anywhere. I think we'd be able to hang on to Willian for another year although his role will be really reduced.

Wasn't it something like 80m euros they paid for him? Also, the fact that his value hasn't gone up even when the market has inflated is an indicator that his sitting on the bench has affected his market value. Not his biggest fan but he's quality still. We need a superstar to play on the opposite side of Hazard. Too much load is being placed on Hazard's shoulders.

Oh I didn't take it as you referring to me specifically. I don't disagree with your point about players being able to make it if they're good enough. But that's why they need to be given the opportunity to succeed or fail tbh. For what it's worth, I'd take Bakayoko over Chalobah. I'd also take Baker over Chalobah tbh. Not too fussed about him not being given the spot we're given Bakayoko like Wilkins is. If we do sell him though (or any youngster henceforth), we need to insert a buy back clause.

Only days ago they were saying Morata was Conte's first choice and Lukaku was Emenalo's. Silly season!

I'd take Rodriguez for £52m and go for Belotti.

What moral high ground? What's the point of spending years and years developing players and pouring huge investments into our multi million pound academy and facilities if we aren't going to get the odd player every now and then from there to play in the first team? Has nothing to do with moral high ground tbqh. There's a case to be made that certain youngsters succeed around top clubs if you give them the chance. For example, after United got rid of Pogba, if he had gone to some small French or Portuguese club (or even a mid/bottom table English club like Morrison did) rather than Juventus, he may not have gotten to the level he's at right now. Josh McEachran was starting to look comfortable playing for us when Carlo was here until AVB binned him and the rest is history. But as I said, we'll have to agree to disagree on this.

Sky reported that we offered the same 75m initial plus 15m add ons United offered. We just weren't willing to pay Raiola's 12m agent fee and we didn't have Rooney to throw in. We wouldn't need to spend that much for Belotti.

First of all, the fact that United had about 5 or 6 players from their Class of 92 playing for them for almost 20 years is enough to excuse whatever failures they had with subsequent youngsters during that period. Secondly, at least they actually tried to introduce the youngsters into the team. The fact that they failed to establish themselves as nailed on first team players is down to the players and not United as a club. We on the other hand have a habit of not even giving them a chance. At least give the players a chance to fail if they're going to fail. Again, I don't think the criticism is unfair but I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

I think if you were to compare him to any top striker in the world today, it would definitely be Suarez. He's been compared a lot to Christian Vieri at Inter back in the day and I think those comparisons are bang on. Love everything about his game and his seems to be improving every season. Here, watch this clip of his 2016/17 season. Gives you a decent idea of what he's like.

Real Madrid have just won back to back CLs with Casemiro, a youth player, starting in midfield. Not to mention Vasquez and Asensio playing significant roles as well. There's also Carvajal who's been a starter for them during this 3 CLs in 4 years phase at RB. Oh and then there's Morata. Sometimes they send the players to other clubs and insert cheap buy back clauses but they still bring them back. If Real Madrid can do it seamlessly, what's our excuse? Beyond academy players, we've sold the likes of De Bruyne and Lukaku without giving them a chance. We favoured 34 year old Eto'o and 34 year old Drogba over Lukaku ffs. Had nothing to do with him not being good enough especially when he was scoring for fun in the same league at the time. As I said, we deserve a lot of criticism. I would expect us to try to give Baker a chance alongside our current crop of midfielders and have him replace Matic if we sell Matic but then again this is Chelsea, we might just go out and buy another CM. We were banned for 2 transfer windows for getting Kakuta and he still didn't get a look in. He's nowhere to be found these days. I just hope Abraham doesn't end up like that. Doesn't bother me as much as it used to though. I've made peace with the fact that it's just not going to happen at this club with the current structure. If it does happen, it'll be a bonus for me.

If we do get him, he does have 10 good years in him though.

Another fantastic post, Davey. Completely agree with everything you've said and I'm surprised more people aren't wishing for Belotti over Morata. As you say, there's just something about him that screams "elite striker", a lot more so than Morata. Apart from his dribbling, link up play, positioning, creating space for other teammates, aerial prowess and of course very good finishing, there's just this never say die attitude about his game that I love. He chases down every ball and never gives up on any opportunity. It's something Costa at his best is quite good at and essential to our formation, something we wouldn't have gotten from Lukaku who can be lazy at times on the pitch. It's something I don't think we'll get from Morata either. I sincerely hope we make the bid for him. Don't pay the 88m being quoted but we can make up for it in add ons and promise Torino a few loan deals with some of our youngsters. Maybe that'll do the trick. Hopefully Conte fancies him over Morata.

Are you 14 years old?

We deserve every bit of criticism we've gotten. Last youth player who became a first team player was JT and he's 36 playing at Villa now. Even Madrid have been winning trophies and introducing their youth at the same time. We need to make some effort. Whether the media blow it out of proportion or not, we do deserve criticism for it tbqh.

Most cringe worthy post I've ever seen on here.

Morata is 24, Belotti will be 24 in December. Who's this 21 year old you're referring to?

Because United had multiple academy players playing for them for decades and now that those have retired, they have players like Rashford (whatever your opinion on LVG and how Rashford broke into the team, he's still a first teamer right now) and Lingard who are academy boys playing for them. What criticism do they deserve?

They already beat us to signing Sule from Schalke. I think they've completed their token German CB signing already.

You've been ignoring all the posts asking you to provide history of your supposed posts mate. Why is that? Could it be because a internet monster ate the posts?

Bullsh*t rumours. He turned United down weeks ago for us and has even said goodbye at Monaco. Far different situation to Lukaku whom we were dragging our feet over right from the start. Bakayoko will be completed soon.