Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

[Deino]

6 hours ago, btpark said:

That's a bit of a stretch, I mean he was ok, but even Oscar Pistorius would link up well with Ronaldo 

You'd have to really observe Benzema to actually understand why it is that he's vital to Ronaldo. There have been tons of good to great strikers since Benzema played in Real but Real didn't even consider anyone else since they bought Benzema. It's funny that Real have constantly rejected bids for him and very rarely do you think of strikers that play at Real whose name is not Benzema.

Benzema's role in Real's style of play is very underrated by fans despite the fact that he consistently scores 20+ goals in all competitions for Real. He is the best striker in the world. Only Lewandowski can challenge him in that regard.

[wallosh]

If you offered me kane or messi today I'd take Kane 

Well, the most of us will take Messi

[wallosh]

Not sure just met you but I can definitely see you have the potential. 
Harry Kane is 23, he will score 30 goals next season, in 2 or 3 years if he keeps going like this he will be one of the top strikers in the World, he is English, PL experience and you would get 10 years out of him, or 5 and resell him for a stupidly high fee.
 Messi is 30 years old, I don't believe would score 20 goals in the PL and he will be done in 3 years, he is small and not very hardy, I think the physicality of the PL at 30 would seriously inhibit his abilities, he has never scored into Chelsea for that reason. Plus we already have hazard who fills any roll Messi could play , so yes I would, for our team take Harry Kane who is a perfect fit for Chelsea over Messi today, only plus Messi has for me over Kane is commercial value, maybe better to ask someone their reasons before making a cheeky comment, especially when you haven't really thought about it. 

Messi coming here will make it easier for us to sign top players and he can win us the champions league consecutively. But we might not win anything even with Kane scoring 30 goals a season.

[DidierDidier]

8 hours ago, DonAntonio said:

Arsenal aren't a physical team, there is not a chance he would score 35 goals no way no how, it is as you said hypothetical but he can't score into physical teams, couldnt score into Iran until injury time, if we played him as a central striker, which he can't play as, so lets say a false 9, hazard who is way more physical gets 15 goals, in a false 9 hazard would do 20, you think he is 15 goals better than hazard? He would get doubled up on and bullied, not a chance he scored 35 in the PL at 30 years old.  

He doesn't score against physical teams is just a complete fallacy. He's scored against United (Ferdinand and Vidic), he's consistently scored against Real Madrid with the likes of Pepe, Casemiro and Ramos attempting to kick him off the pitch. He has destroyed Jerome Boateng. Also please don't pretend La Liga teams like Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao aren't physical either and he scores ( a lot) against them as well. By the way when I said play him at striker I really mean leaving him at the top of the field and letting him pretty much do what he wants. 

Maybe you're right that 35 goals is a bit optimistic for his first season in the premier league, I'll revise that down to just the 30. We'll just have to agree to disagree I guess.   

[TheChelseaBlues]

2 hours ago, wallosh said:

Messi coming here will make it easier for us to sign top players and he can win us the champions league consecutively. But we might not win anything even with Kane scoring 30 goals a season.

Messi can win us the CL titles consecutively? You must be trolling. If we had Kane scoring 30 goals I'd be pretty confident of winning something. We're not Tottenham after all. I'd rather have Kane than anyone else we've been linked with. Messi the best but you pay for present and future performance not past. 

Frankly I can't think of any ST I'd rather have than Kane aside from Lewa and Aguero for the next few years. 

Edited July 16, 2017 by TheChelseaBlues

[CarefreeSimmo_]

Can't put my finger on why but something really makes me hope we don't sign him.

Morata/Bellotti are much more enticing targets.

[JT_<3]

Well,believe me when i say that every coach in the world would sign messi any day of the week without any second thoughts.

I don't care if Kane scores 3 or 4 goals against hull wba and bournemouth,i care that messi scores them again arsenal,man city,real madrid and atletico.And let me remind you,he scored 3 against city less than a year ago.

And when was the last time a single player had a hatrick against Real?Oh right,that was messi.And the one time before that?Also messi

Saying you would get kane instead of messi is just ludicrous

[Spandau Billy]

Dortmund pleading with clubs to make a bid. Something wrong with this guy?

Edited July 16, 2017 by Spandau Billy

[ashwin]

I can't believe that people believe Messi will be ineffective in the PL! he will singlehandedly dismantle PL teams at 35... More than Messi's supposed failings, we have our own incredible defensive performances to thank for his drought against us. He has come extremely close on several occasions though, so there's a great element of chance involved in that statistic as well.

[doctorblue]

29 minutes ago, ashwin said:

I can't believe that people believe Messi will be ineffective in the PL! he will singlehandedly dismantle PL teams at 35... More than Messi's supposed failings, we have our own incredible defensive performances to thank for his drought against us. He has come extremely close on several occasions though, so there's a great element of chance involved in that statistic as well.

Err no...Messi is only that good because he's surrounded by good players at Barcelona...put him into the Argentinean team and he's relatively sh*te...

Edited July 16, 2017 by doctorblue

[GlasgowK]

1 minute ago, doctorblue said:

Err no...Messi is only that good because he's surrounded by good players...put him into the Argentinean team and he's relatively sh*te...

I would take Kane over Messi everyday of the week for Chelsea 

[dansubrosa]

Kane over Messi?! Don't be ridiculous... Messi will win us big games single handedly, something I think Kane can't do.

[amART]

whoever pick kane over Messi should be banned from watching football for the rest of his life

[pacquiao]

Forget Aubameyang Chelsea are not serious about him, they are using him as smokescreen, Morata has always been Conte's first choice 

[brakeit]

You mean Lukaku, right ?

 

[pacquiao]

18 minutes ago, brakeit said:

You mean Lukaku, right ?

 

No

[Chelsbear]

30 minutes ago, pacquiao said:

Forget Aubameyang Chelsea are not serious about him, they are using him as smokescreen, Morata has always been Conte's first choice 

Don't buy that for a second.

Why would we waste valuable time chasing a player that's clearly not for sale?

If United's money didn't bag him then ours certainly wouldn't either. Jose came out today and swid hes unattainable 

File under rubbish 

Edited July 16, 2017 by Chelsbear

[Battlewhisk]

I would very much be interested in some of the drugs half this forum seem to be taking.

Refusing the greatest footballer of all time in favour of Harry f**king Kane? 

I'm also confused by the idea that Kane would give us 30 goals because that's what he scores. Like it's a simple bit of addition. Why not have 11 strikers and see how many goals we'd score.

From what I've seen on here these past few weeks there is a strange notion of simplifying things to the point they're meaningless. The claw for Lukaku is almost a desperate nostalgia for Drogba. He's not Drogba and won't ever be. He's faster, but worse technically. They play in different ways and have different attributes.

I try to express this fairly often, but it's not worth replacing a player with a poorer version of the same player.

Harry Kane is good but as someone else quite eloquently put it, "Levy wouldn't sell us the steam from his piss for £70m." I think a few people rate him more highly than they should because of the English hope factor. The papers and every Englishman rates him more highly because he could be the saviour of the national team. He's not going to be the greatest of all time however. He isn't Pele or the Brazilian Ronaldo. He's a good player and a good goal scorer. 

Incidentally, I think something similar has happened to Moses. After his poor time trying to make it as a winger, loans all over the place we'd all but given up on him. This year he has a break out season and plays wing back beyond all expectation. This leads to some saying that Danilo is a poor signing. Some saying that he's too expensive to be a backup, but given the inflated market that's not really true. Others saying that he's not as good as Moses. Clearly a pair of blue tinted spectacles are in need of removal or at least a good lens cleaning kit (my mum swears by putting them in the dishwasher).  Moses has been exposed more than a few times and if Danilo failed to make the grade for looking a bit clunky compared to his teammates, I can only imagine how Moses would look in that Real side. 

To my overarching point. It should go without saying that signing a player is extremely complicated. Styles can be changed without changing systems, systems can be changed without changing styles and players can be changed or not changed with all others changing. Signing Aubameyang would mean a change in style, but not necessarily a change in system. It would mean that Willian and Hazard would need to play closer for sure, but we would be blistering on the break. Something which genuinely excites me. Against the smaller teams, Aubameyang has that knack for finding space and we have two players in Hazard and Fabregas who have the ability to spot it and more so in Fab to find the pass. Pumping it to a big man doesn't have to be plan A and I'd much rather it isn't. Michy can hold the ball up and a slight rejigging would allow him to be our plan B. 

Looking at stats is all well and good for finding out current performance, but isn't necessarily a solid predictor of future performance. There needs to be some qualitative analysis alongside. The system, the style, they type of chances are all factors that need to be considered. I think Aubameyang could work for us, I think Morata would be better and I think that both would be better than Lukaku. I know at this point it sounds a bit soft to say that as we failed to sign him, but I was more resigned to that decision than excited by it. I think there was too much wrong with signing Lukaku. 

I could be proven wrong with all of this ina year from now, but hindsight is 20:20 and until then this is where I stand. Although if there's a chance we can get Griezmann as part of the Costa deal I'd carry him to Madrid on my bicycle.

[pacquiao]

7 minutes ago, Chelsbear said:

Don't buy that for a second.

Why would we waste valuable time chasing a player that's clearly not for sale?

If United's money didn't bag him then ours certainly wouldn't either. Jose came out today and swid hes unattainable 

File under rubbish 

We are not chasing him right now though, he is the player Conte wants but the club knows Real Madrid are not being reasonable with the price, Chelsea are just going to be patient for now and monitor the situation.

[TomCFC85]

According to Oddschanger, we're now 5/6 favourites to sign PEA.

[evissy]

Okay, what does that mean?

[AndyBlue82]

I personally think he's the best of a ever dwindling selection of available strikers. 

[pacquiao]

2 minutes ago, evissy said:

Okay, what does that mean?

It means a lot of people have wasted their money 

[DonAntonio]

3 hours ago, JT_<3 said:

Well,believe me when i say that every coach in the world would sign messi any day of the week without any second thoughts.

I don't care if Kane scores 3 or 4 goals against hull wba and bournemouth,i care that messi scores them again arsenal,man city,real madrid and atletico.And let me remind you,he scored 3 against city less than a year ago.

And when was the last time a single player had a hatrick against Real?Oh right,that was messi.And the one time before that?Also messi

Saying you would get kane instead of messi is just ludicrous

I'd score into city if I had Barca players roundme playing for me, feeding me 

[STATS]

16 minutes ago, DonAntonio said:

I'd score into city if I had Barca players roundme playing for me, feeding me 

Difference is, Messi can feed himself and a lot the goals comes from pure individual genius skill.