5 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

Honestly 1 bad example doesn't make the rule, the last Ballon D'or in the PL was Ronaldo and he was signed as a fairly unproven kid. We have found some good players from much lower leagues or more unknown parts of the world football wise in the past and big clubs like Real Madrid and many other have invested in unproven talent from South America many times, Man City have signed Kayky and reports say they are looking to sign 2 more Brazilian young talents and that's just this last few months...

It seems that Inter is preparing to sign Vlahovic for half the price of Lukaku as his replacement:

Lukaku is going to be our top signing in history and we're banking on the fact that he's now super proven but ultimately when the most important big games are played Lukaku has disappeared most of the time so we will be paying him massively just to win small games.

While it would be ideal to have players who come up with the big goals it is rare to find strikers that both score regularly and get the big goals. Giroud often came up with a goal in the big games, but he wasn't a prolific enough goalscorer to be a first choice starter for us. Drogba at his peak is a player that provided both. I think regardless of who we bring in it is vital that we have other sources of goals in the team. Kai should provide more goals this season and Werner will hopefully find some scoring form. I am also encouraged by what I have seen from Ziyech in pre-season.

2 minutes ago, forbzy said:

While it would be ideal to have players who come up with the big goals it is rare to find strikers that both score regularly and get the big goals. Giroud often came up with a goal in the big games, but he wasn't a prolific enough goalscorer to be a first choice starter for us. Drogba at his peak is a player that provided both. I think regardless of who we bring in it is vital that we have other sources of goals in the team. Kai should provide more goals this season and Werner will hopefully find some scoring form. I am also encouraged by what I have seen from Ziyech in pre-season.

I agree that we need a new signing there is no question about it and I won't turn my back on Lukaku if he fails to deliver in an important game... But I'm surprised that as soon as Haaland became too difficult we panicked and turned to Lukaku once again, as if there is only 2 strikers in the whole world good enough for us.

https://football-italia.net/zhang-and-inter-reconsidering-lukaku-sale-to-chelsea/

It's not a done deal yet lads....apparently the inter board are throwing their toys out the pram. A handful may resign if Romelu is sold.

Also Arsenal are apparently going to push for Martinez which may prevent us from signing big Rom. Things are definitely going to get interesting. If we don't close this deal by the end of this week I may start lose faith as there are a few things going against us.

17 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

Honestly 1 bad example doesn't make the rule, the last Ballon D'or in the PL was Ronaldo and he was signed as a fairly unproven kid. We have found some good players from much lower leagues or more unknown parts of the world football wise in the past and big clubs like Real Madrid and many other have invested in unproven talent from South America many times, Man City have signed Kayky and reports say they are looking to sign 2 more Brazilian young talents and that's just this last few months...

It seems that Inter is preparing to sign Vlahovic for half the price of Lukaku as his replacement:

Lukaku is going to be our top signing in history and we're banking on the fact that he's now super proven but ultimately when the most important big games are played Lukaku has disappeared most of the time so we will be paying him massively just to win small games.

1 good example doesnt prove anything either, especially when you have plucked one of the best players in the world. More chance of a Gabriel, Forlan, Pavlyuchenko, etc than there is from unearthing the next Ronaldo from nowhere. Especially now with modern scouting systems, where any player with big potential, are already known to teams around the world. 

The point however, is not whether we could find an up an coming talent on the cheap from somewhere. Obviously we could. Why are ypu bringing up examples of city signing ypung players? I never said we shouldnt sign young prospects from all over the world. We are talking about who is going to lead the line NEXT season.  

We want to win the title next season. We arent looking for a player with potential. We have loads of players with potential already at the club. 

There seems to be a massive obsession in developing raw talent into superstars, like its football manager. City couldve thrown an 18 year old kid in from brazil, but they bought Grealish. Why? because they think he can improve the 1st team next season.

Occasionally an academy player will make the grade, and occasionally a player will come from nowhere and go on to be a star. 

But generally clubs buy players from a similar or just lower level than themselves.

Does big Rom turn up in the big games? Maybe not.  Did Bruno turn invisible in the big games for Man Utd? Yes, but did he turn them from a team that struggles in the lesser games to one that could well be in a title race this season ? Yes.  

If he helps use smash some of the lesser teams rather than struggling to a 0-0 draws I will be happy.  However he’s no Haaland and he probably kills any chance of getting Haaland next summer and I want Haaland.  If Man Utd sign Haaland next year I will need to emigrate to Antarctica.  So I’m not sure what to think, this transfer could inadvertently turn into my worst nightmare, that’s if living with Man U fans wasn’t a living nightmare already.

41 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

Honestly 1 bad example doesn't make the rule, the last Ballon D'or in the PL was Ronaldo and he was signed as a fairly unproven kid. We have found some good players from much lower leagues or more unknown parts of the world football wise in the past and big clubs like Real Madrid and many other have invested in unproven talent from South America many times, Man City have signed Kayky and reports say they are looking to sign 2 more Brazilian young talents and that's just this last few months...

It seems that Inter is preparing to sign Vlahovic for half the price of Lukaku as his replacement:

Lukaku is going to be our top signing in history and we're banking on the fact that he's now super proven but ultimately when the most important big games are played Lukaku has disappeared most of the time so we will be paying him massively just to win small games.

Vlahovic has approximately half the number of goals as Lukaku in Serie A. It looks like he barely assists goals. Why would we want him? We have plenty of our own youngsters to develop.

Bad examples are more the norm than good examples. For every 100 promising youngsters bought from other leagues, only a handful come good. Those are the probabilities to look at, not Ronaldo's example.

We want a striker who will immediately fit in and score goals. Not some random prospect who may or may not come good.

And finally, if the club are not in for him, I would assume they have made this decision after weighing more evidence than YouTube videos 🙂

1 hour ago, haviet1 said:

128M Euros bid accepted

£108M ....you don't get much for your money these days.

that's over a million £ per kilo.

58 minutes ago, LongtimerLurker said:

https://football-italia.net/zhang-and-inter-reconsidering-lukaku-sale-to-chelsea/

It's not a done deal yet lads....apparently the inter board are throwing their toys out the pram. A handful may resign if Romelu is sold.

Also Arsenal are apparently going to push for Martinez which may prevent us from signing big Rom. Things are definitely going to get interesting. If we don't close this deal by the end of this week I may start lose faith as there are a few things going against us.

That certainly would be an amusing twist.

8 minutes ago, coco said:

£108M ....you don't get much for your money these days.

that's over a million £ per kilo.

Dont think that is true as of yet. Not see any reports of a bid accepted. By all accounts we are still trying to offload a couple of players, certainly Zappacosta,  to lower the price.

1 hour ago, LongtimerLurker said:

https://football-italia.net/zhang-and-inter-reconsidering-lukaku-sale-to-chelsea/

It's not a done deal yet lads....apparently the inter board are throwing their toys out the pram. A handful may resign if Romelu is sold.

Also Arsenal are apparently going to push for Martinez which may prevent us from signing big Rom. Things are definitely going to get interesting. If we don't close this deal by the end of this week I may start lose faith as there are a few things going against us.

This is when we'd be in real trouble if this is true.

 

1 minute ago, axman2526 said:

That certainly would be an amusing twist.

Dont think that is true as of yet. Not see any reports of a bid accepted. By all accounts we are still trying to offload a couple of players, certainly Zappacosta,  to lower the price.

Or you could say to Zappa the Costa down

no Lukaku then.  expecting panic buy 

14 minutes ago, mojo said:

no Lukaku then.  expecting panic buy 

Has there been any solid reports of this deal falling through? I don’t see that anywhere.

no 😶

27 minutes ago, mojo said:

no Lukaku then.  expecting panic buy 

Based on very recent events, Messi 😄 

20 minutes ago, mwblue10 said:

Has there been any solid reports of this deal falling through? I don’t see that anywhere.

Nothing concrete but there is said to be real heat from the fans and board at Inter towards the owners about this.

They are all said to be pushing the club that enough has been lost already in Conte and Hakimi, and at most to sell Martinez and not Lukaku, who is called the "king of Milan" out there.

Most recent reports say the Zhang family are bowing to that pressure.

3 hours ago, big blue said:

1 good example doesnt prove anything either, especially when you have plucked one of the best players in the world. More chance of a Gabriel, Forlan, Pavlyuchenko, etc than there is from unearthing the next Ronaldo from nowhere. Especially now with modern scouting systems, where any player with big potential, are already known to teams around the world. 

The point however, is not whether we could find an up an coming talent on the cheap from somewhere. Obviously we could. Why are ypu bringing up examples of city signing ypung players? I never said we shouldnt sign young prospects from all over the world. We are talking about who is going to lead the line NEXT season.  

We want to win the title next season. We arent looking for a player with potential. We have loads of players with potential already at the club. 

There seems to be a massive obsession in developing raw talent into superstars, like its football manager. City couldve thrown an 18 year old kid in from brazil, but they bought Grealish. Why? because they think he can improve the 1st team next season.

Occasionally an academy player will make the grade, and occasionally a player will come from nowhere and go on to be a star. 

But generally clubs buy players from a similar or just lower level than themselves.

Well my point is that there had been talents that big clubs have also made into big players and that came from all around the world. I mentioned Real Madrid and Man City because big clubs also sign unproven talent and it pays off, there are other examples like Barcelona that did a whole lot in order to sign a young Neymar and it took them 2 seasons to win a treble with him. Haaland is the new superstar that will be talked about but it looks like we simply couldn't match his price but are still willing to throw a lot of money on anyone, I don't like that we got 2-3 bids rejected for Lukaku it makes the board look like they are all over the place and just begging another key player of another team to come.

My point is that we don't need to buy someone like Lukaku in order to succeed, there are other ways to improve than simply accepting that we must buy someone else's key player now that we can't get Haaland. We can improve our 1st team without Lukaku and for less money, the Haaland transfer would have been different but with Lukaku we're paying like we're signing a real superstar player but we're not really getting a real superstar. That's how it see it, you buy a player for 110m and 250-300k wages to win everything but we'll get a player that will boost end product against lower-end opposition and that won't show up in most big games.

Inter and Spurs are reported to be ready for a 50-60m Vlahovic as a replacement for Lukaku/Kane, we could have just signed that 21 year old for much less and he would be more willing to sometimes be on the bench and rotate with Havertz as well when the tactics dictate it and he would still be getting 15 goals easy.

I'm not going to go against Lukaku if things go bad but many fans will and questions about his price tag, wages and overall ability will put a lot of pressure on him and on Tuchel, we signed Havertz and Werner for a bit more than 130m euros, some report that's basically the amount Inter wants, IMO we're overpaying it by a significant margin.

 

Edited August 5, 20214 yr by Gol15

The funniest thing would be Man City Reneging on buying Grealish and instead buy Messi while Villa have already spent the Grealish money on Ings and Bailey

19 minutes ago, The Don Antonio said:

The funniest thing would be Man City Reneging on buying Grealish and instead buy Messi while Villa have already spent the Grealish money on Ings and Bailey

Yes, yes it would be. Lol

50 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Nothing concrete but there is said to be real heat from the fans and board at Inter towards the owners about this.

They are all said to be pushing the club that enough has been lost already in Conte and Hakimi, and at most to sell Martinez and not Lukaku, who is called the "king of Milan" out there.

Most recent reports say the Zhang family are bowing to that pressure.

Further to this some reports are now indicating the Zhang family have communicated to their board, Lukaku and Us that Lukaku will not be sold at any price.

2 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Further to this some reports are now indicating the Zhang family have communicated to their board, Lukaku and Us that Lukaku will not be sold at any price.

AMEN

Just now, The Don Antonio said:

AMEN

Well we know our panic buy will not be Danny ings at least lol

https://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/chelsea-fc-transfer-rumours-news/2021/8/5/22610841/romelu-lukaku-departure-generates-rift-at-inter-milan-as-chelsea-seek-to-close-deal-within-48-hours

 

This article mentions some of what I wrote, as well as pictures of banners showing Inters fans reaction.

18 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Well we know our panic buy will not be Danny ings at least lol

Anyone know what Glen Murray’s up to these days?

I don't want Lukaku to sign. As has been said there's almost zero chance he'll score as many in the PL as he has done in Serie A recently. And big matches, he doesn't possess that bit of flair that shows itself in big matches. I'd love us to sign Messi on a 1 year contract, apart from that leave the squad as it is for this season. 

5 hours ago, Gol15 said:

Honestly 1 bad example doesn't make the rule, the last Ballon D'or in the PL was Ronaldo and he was signed as a fairly unproven kid. We have found some good players from much lower leagues or more unknown parts of the world football wise in the past and big clubs like Real Madrid and many other have invested in unproven talent from South America many times, Man City have signed Kayky and reports say they are looking to sign 2 more Brazilian young talents and that's just this last few months...

It seems that Inter is preparing to sign Vlahovic for half the price of Lukaku as his replacement:

Lukaku is going to be our top signing in history and we're banking on the fact that he's now super proven but ultimately when the most important big games are played Lukaku has disappeared most of the time so we will be paying him massively just to win small games.

With Tammy possibly going in addition to Giroud there could be an argument for us to go for both Lukaku and Vlahovic.