Empathy is strong there...Sounds like you're speaking from painful memories of your own Andre...

I'm on the fence about this one, erring on the side of no. However there are a number of things that make me think that it could be a decent deal.

 

Firstly, the injury he suffered was a horrendous one and whilst you can be back playing sport again within 6-9 months, the consensus is that full recovery takes up to two years. Of course you can get some freaks who are back competing at the same level much sooner (Adrian Peterson being the poster boy in the NFL) but then there's also those who never get back to the same level.  Falcao tore his about 17 months ago. He could still get back there.

 

Secondly, United were appalling this year. I don't think many of their attacking players shone and I think that has a lot to do with Van Gaal's tactics as well as some unfortunate injuries to key players....well A key player - Carrick. Seriously, the squad composition at that club is utterly appalling so I'm not surprised that a striker new to the league struggled.

 

Thirdly, he's had that year here now. He knows what to expect....hopefully.

 

Fourth. Price. I have no idea about the complex machinations at Monaco brought about by the owner's divorce but not only do they have a striker who is seen as damaged goods because of his injury, he's also coming off a tremendously underwhelming season. You'd hope that even in the crazy world of football contracts that he and Monaco might ease back on some of their demands. He's also still a fairly big name internationally so there's always the commercial side to consider.

 

Fifth, he might actually fit the squad. If Costa is established as number one striker then you're looking at needing high quality replacements and I don't think I'm alone in believing Loic Remy is that. Falcao as another back-up eases the burden on him so we might get the best out of him. That leaves Solanke as fourth choice to get minutes where he can and Bamford out on-loan for another season. If Falcao does well then hooray for us. If he doesn't then we look elsewhere (or within).

 

Now the obvious problem here is that Costa has had problems with his hamstrings and Remy has developed some sympathy pains that have left us with only Didier up-front at times this season. He's worked hard but age has an undefeated record and would we trust all our hopes with Falcao? ACL re-injury rates are no higher than injury rates in the general population but he's not getting any younger.

 

Finally, there's the links with Jose. He knows the striker from Spain but he also shares the same agent and if Jorge Mendes is involved then my belief that a deal might happen goes from 20% to 70%. If Jose reckons he can still do the job then I'm inclined to trust him and maybe he becomes another Eto'o as someone mentioned above, but with two other top-class strikers alongside him.

 

So I'm not going to write him off just yet, nor am I going to suggest a deal to get him would be a bad thing. He was a great striker and he'll want to get back there, so what better way to do that then go to a team looking to retain the league and progress in Europe? He has the Copa America in summer which could be a great thing in terms of his fitness and also his form and we could get the benefit of that one last hurrah from him.

Empathy is strong there...Sounds like you're speaking from painful memories of your own Andre...

 

Benteke. A player who had one good season and has had a decent end to this one under Sherwood, also remember he was very poor under Lambert. He would cost around 30+ million in todays market, it would be a heck of a lot of money to throw at a second striker. Lets face it, If Diego is fit he is playing.

 

Or Falcao, a stop gap option for a year who will cost no where near that amount of money and on wages that weren't as high as first feared. This gives the chance for someone like Bamford to get another year under his belt maybe at a PL club and hopefully make the step up.

 

I honestly think the risks are quite equal. 

 

You obviously can compare to the Torres, Shevchenko situation. It's easy. I don't think Jose looks at it like that and he will be considered.

 

It's just dull to rule him out because he's had bad season at an average team in transition. I don't want him but a deal like this could make sense if no other options are available.

It would be a complete waste of time, the guy is finished. 4 goals for United this season, Torres was better for us than Falcao has been for United.

 

Why would Mourinho pick Falcao over Remy or a youngster ? Remy is actually a good footballer and a youngster can't possibly do any worse than Falcao would.

Disagree with that and think you are actually being really harsh. Perhaps forgotten just how bad Torres was. If Torres put in half the amount of effort Falcao has done for United every game then I would be more understanding but he didn't, nowhere near. 

 

That said, as with the likes of James Rodriguez, Moutinho and Hulk, we already missed out on the perfect opportunity to sign him. He wouldn't be my first option but he would suit our style of football far more than he does United's so I wouldn't be upset if we did land him.

Disagree with that, Torres did put the effort in. Infact I think at times he was working to hard and he was dropping outwide to often. One things for sur with Torres it wasn't his workrate that was the problem.

Edited May 26, 201511 yr by Bobbywoodhogan

Disagree with that, Torres did put the effort in. Infact I think at times he was working to hard and he was dropping outwide to often. One things for sur with Torres it wasn't his workrate that was the problem.

Over the course of his career here, I don't think he did. He had his moments and improved in that regard towards the end but he didn't do it in every game like Falcao has done. I always felt he drifted out wide to hide from responsibility more than anything else, confidence got drained and he was desperate to be anywhere but in the box. You don't see that with Falcao, he is always there, putting himself in danger areas and making the runs even when he's missed the vast majority of his chances. 

Simple answer.. No he's sh*te.

Torres WAS better for us than Falcao was for United...

In actual fact, Sheva, I haven't ruled him out. When I read your comment and then saw it was Sheva in your profile, it made me chuckle.

Agree that the United team has been awful in terms of attack, and it hasn't helped that he has usually seen very little quality service. The problem for me is he doesn't seem to have any spring in his step, any spark, looks physically out of sorts while his general technique and overall play also looks suspect.

Could be down to the the injury and he may yet return to his old form, but it is more likely that the injury has had a lasting impact on him imho.

In any case, it would be good to see how he does in the copa to give a better idea closer to a possible signing.

(Maybe a player plus money deal for Benteke would be possible. I would still go for Benteke over Falcao even with his price, simply due to the age And his being a better fit.)

Edited May 26, 201511 yr by GhostOfDembaPast

People say United have been poor in attack and it's not Falcao's fault.............that sounds so much like the excuses that were being made for Torres in his first year and a bit with us.

 

Van Persie has had a lot of injuries this season and even he still managed 10 goals. Rooney has played behind the striker a lot and he has scored 14. If you are good enough, you can play in any system.

We clearly need another attacking midfielder to score goals. Fabregas was great but he didn't provide the goals that Frank used to. Neither does Willian. Oscar gets a few.

That's why I like the idea of Griezman. There is every chance that costa will have more injury trouble next year.

Terry is clearly coming to the end. I know that's hard to say after the season he has had but in my view it's the case just the same. At some point his lack of pace will be exposed.

Despite the points we achieved when costa was injured my feeling was it was done on will power, not by playing dominant football.

We seem along way short of a cl winning team

Terry has never been blessed with pace though, that's never been a part of his game. That's why he's as good now as he was 10 years ago.

Like Maldini his game has always been about getting stuck in and being a master of being in the right position to nullify any threat. Very rarely do you see JT in a foot race...exactly like Mladini.

Edited May 27, 201511 yr by Chelsbear

Over the course of his career here, I don't think he did. He had his moments and improved in that regard towards the end but he didn't do it in every game like Falcao has done. I always felt he drifted out wide to hide from responsibility more than anything else, confidence got drained and he was desperate to be anywhere but in the box. You don't see that with Falcao, he is always there, putting himself in danger areas and making the runs even when he's missed the vast majority of his chances.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

When Maldini was young he was incredibly rapid!!

There are some rumours that Inter is interested in Cuadrado, hopefully there are some truth to them. We could correct two mistakes and make a profit out of it, if we sold Cuadrado for £20mil+ and Salah for £15mil.

There are some rumours that Inter is interested in Cuadrado, hopefully there are some truth to them. We could correct two mistakes and make a profit out of it, if we sold Cuadrado for £20mil+ and Salah for £15mil.

If those rumours of Inter interested in Cuadrado, we'd be very lucky.

There are some rumours that Inter is interested in Cuadrado, hopefully there are some truth to them. We could correct two mistakes and make a profit out of it, if we sold Cuadrado for £20mil+ and Salah for £15mil.

He's struggled and shown little in his time in England to fill me with much hope, but it would be silly to sell Cuadrado after 5 months in the league with no pre-season and barely any playing time under his belt, especially if it's for less than the £26m or whatever it is we spent on him. His value is not going to go down, especially not in Italy where he's already proven himself, plus our squad is thin in the wide areas and we don't need to sell to buy. I'm probably grasping at straws, but it's not easy settling into a new league and country as it is, and it's even harder to make a mark when you're playing limited minutes in a team constantly playing tight games with little room for error whilst going for the title. Let's at least give him a proper chance before we get rid of him.

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Edited May 29, 201511 yr by GhostOfDembaPast

He's struggled and shown little in his time in England to fill me with much hope, but it would be silly to sell Cuadrado after 5 months in the league with no pre-season and barely any playing time under his belt, especially if it's for less than the £26m or whatever it is we spent on him. His value is not going to go down, especially not in Italy where he's already proven himself, plus our squad is thin in the wide areas and we don't need to sell to buy. I'm probably grasping at straws, but it's not easy settling into a new league and country as it is, and it's even harder to make a mark when you're playing limited minutes in a team constantly playing tight games with little room for error whilst going for the title. Let's at least give him a proper chance before we get rid of him.

 

I can't see how he can improve enough to compete for a spot in our team. I worry that another 6-12 months with the same lackluster performance will make it very hard to sell him without a huge loss. We are thin in the wide areas, but instead of having someone that is not good enough as backup, I would buy Griezmann and Pedro instead.

I can't see how he can improve enough to compete for a spot in our team. I worry that another 6-12 months with the same lackluster performance will make it very hard to sell him without a huge loss. We are thin in the wide areas, but instead of having someone that is not good enough as backup, I would buy Griezmann and Pedro instead.

We can buy Griezmann without selling Cuadrado, & I don't think Cuadrado's value will go down massively unless he has a serious injury. As long as the Seria A exists, we're going to get a good deal. He was a star there and owners/managers who think they're a signing away are going to remember that over whatever he does at Chelsea. I'm not at all keen on Pedro for many reasons, the relevant one being - if Cuadrado doesn't work out, we really need to stop taking punts on players who "may" be good enough or available at a bargain, and just sign world class players instead. It's like we've adopted Liverpool's transfer policy solely for the right side of our attack and it's cost us more than it would've to simply sign one top player.

 

Again, let's just give Cuadrado a decent chance before we completely write him off and replace him with another guy we'll want to get rid of in 6 months. He's been terrible and that's largely on him, but maybe with a preseason some of our players will develop an understanding with him and notice that unlike Willian he likes the ball played in front of him and not at his feet, and maybe they'll begin to notice the Schurrle-esque diagonal runs he makes behind the defence. I know it looks like he's complete sh*t, especially when on the ball, but he has attributes that we can use if he can adjust to the pace of the league and if he remembers that he was actually pretty decent at football before signing with us.

Selling Cuadrado leaves us with only Hazard and Willian. Only two wide players. If Griezmann comes that's three. Still short. So unless we keep Salah or end up buying 2 new wingers in the summer, it would leave us short again with Cuadrado gone.

If selling Cuadrado means 2 top class wingers come in (Griezmann, Reus, etc), all for it, otherwise there doesn't seem to be much of a point, especially as it's so soon.

I heard inter wanted him on loan.

Cheap b******** those Italians, knew it was too good to be true.

Selling Cuadrado leaves us with only Hazard and Willian. Only two wide players. If Griezmann comes that's three. Still short. So unless we keep Salah or end up buying 2 new wingers in the summer, it would leave us short again with Cuadrado gone.

If selling Cuadrado means 2 top class wingers come in (Griezmann, Reus, etc), all for it, otherwise there doesn't seem to be much of a point, especially as it's so soon.

 

Bring Traore back. Can't be worse than Cuadrado.