Romelu Lukaku back to Chelsea - and gone again!

[Guest Sindre]

2 hours ago, evissy said:

Not sure how they are selling this idea to Lukaku. Does he feel he is the fallback player? If so he has no chance. The soft heads we have brought over the years to lead our line in Drogba's shadow is just a running joke. Torres and Morata in particular. That characteristic might even show in Werner although jury is still out. In his case I think his ceiling is a bit lower against the high demand of this league. 

Don't think he does. It was reported early Lukaku, Kane or Haaland was our targets and if Lukaku hadn't gone on record saying he wanted to stay at Inter back in June I think we would have finalized this deal already.

No worries about Lukaku's mentality anymore. Ibrahimovic tried to bully him in Serie A this season and Lukaku responded by smashing his team with two goals and an assist in a 3-0 win.

[Adamrb]

45 minutes ago, Andy2461 said:

Tbh I’m not sold on this transfer 

I think the club really wanted Haaland but couldn’t get him so have gone back to a 2nd choice 

we have to have someone to put the ball in the net but who from the front 3 is gonna drop out ? 

 

I’m not sold in it. But… if you can’t get your #1 who else do we get. The manager clearly wants someone

[hephzibah]

2 hours ago, evissy said:

I really hope we know what we are doing. I feel we are buying a second choice player for our record fee. Now some might argue he is merely a second choice for me wanting Haaland (who is unattainable) but I think the club wanted Haaland and has this compulsory idea we just need to buy an attacker no matter what. 

Not sure how they are selling this idea to Lukaku. Does he feel he is the fallback player? If so he has no chance. The soft heads we have brought over the years to lead our line in Drogba's shadow is just a running joke. Torres and Morata in particular. That characteristic might even show in Werner although jury is still out. In his case I think his ceiling is a bit lower against the high demand of this league. 

This is a major risk. I really hope it works out. 

Even the mixed comments inside our community (Chelsea fans) indicate this is not a match made in heaven. Bringing out videos where Lukaku then 18 is at the Bridge sort of a wish this is a love affair. It feels forced. 

Well, I don't know if I should be excited about the transfer to be honest. I don't think he's the kind of player that can get goals at will the way we will want it. But I think the Haaland situation is difficult. 

And I sincerely think Werner has what it takes to be good for us, maybe he just needs to brace himself up, and he will be doing well. 

But this case of Lukaku, I think we have no choice, we just have to hope that he will do well for us.

[Jezq8]

55 minutes ago, Adamrb said:

I’m not sold in it. But… if you can’t get your #1 who else do we get. The manager clearly wants someone

Yes. 
 

and it was evident that last season we were really lacking upfront in terms of goals.

we can’t go through another season the same.

I don’t see why people can’t see the reason behind this transfer. 

[TomCFC85]

Trying to think what hashtag they'll use for his return

#RomBack

#LuBacku 

#Bluebaku

 

 

[Mod]

Isn’t his average a goal every two games or thereabouts?

It could be worse. I don’t know if Haarland could match that for goals.

[coco]

 

1 hour ago, Jezq8 said:

Yes. 
 

and it was evident that last season we were really lacking upfront in terms of goals.

we can’t go through another season the same.

I don’t see why people can’t see the reason behind this transfer. 

It's not a simple matter of gaining goals with nothing to lose. We became Champions of Europe beating 3 of the top 4 in Spain, and City three times, with NO striker up front. 

I would be behind this transfer if i knew that TT will try to stick to last seasons shape as much as possible, and use Lukaku as an alternative plan B, my fear is the price tag means he will start most games.

I'm all for being dynamic, but lets not throw the baby out in the bathwater.

[Jezz]

Been critical of Lukaku in the past, but I'm slowly warming to the idea of bringing him back.

We need a proper striker and getting Haaland will be a tough ask, so Lukaku might be the next best option in the circumstances.

[comtrend]

37 minutes ago, coco said:

 

It's not a simple matter of gaining goals with nothing to lose. We became Champions of Europe beating 3 of the top 4 in Spain, and City three times, with NO striker up front. 

I would be behind this transfer if i knew that TT will try to stick to last seasons shape as much as possible, and use Lukaku as an alternative plan B, my fear is the price tag means he will start most games.

I'm all for being dynamic, but lets not throw the baby out in the bathwater.

I don't mind the transfer if Lukaku can accept that he will be rotated for tactical reasons. I don't really see him as a plan B though, 80%+ of the time we are facing teams that are happy to defend a point in a low block, wich caused us alot of problems last season. However, I can see problems for Tuchel having to explain to Lukaku that he prefers the shape of Werner-Havertz-Mount against the better oposition.

Edited August 7, 2021 by comtrend

[ForeverCarefree]

32 minutes ago, coco said:

It's not a simple matter of gaining goals with nothing to lose. We became Champions of Europe beating 3 of the top 4 in Spain, and City three times, with NO striker up front. 

I would be behind this transfer if i knew that TT will try to stick to last seasons shape as much as possible, and use Lukaku as an alternative plan B, my fear is the price tag means he will start most games.

I'm all for being dynamic, but lets not throw the baby out in the bathwater.

In the league it was our record against teams in the bottom half of the table that was particularly disappointing last season. 

We would beat Manchester City, Leicester or Liverpool but then lose to West Brom (twice!) or have goalless draws against Leeds or Wolves. 

Lukaku is accused of being a flat track bully, goal stay padding against lesser teams but arguably that's what we need more than anything. 

[ducavis]

1 minute ago, comtrend said:

I don't mind the transfer if Lukaku can accept that he will be rotated for tactical reasons. I don't really see him as a plan B though, 80%+ of the time we are facing teams that are happy to defend a points in a low block, wich caused us alot of problems last season. However, I can see problems for Tuchel having to explain to Lukaku that he prefers the shape of Werner-Havertz-Mount against the better oposition.

You don’t spend £100m+ on a player to rotate him, he starts every game if he is fit.

[Amputechture]

[axman2526]

Honestly I dont think Haaland was ever a realistic target, and neither was Kane. 

Kane is obvious why not. For Haaland he has the same agent Lukaku used to who screwed us when we tried to get Rom back from Everton and took the big payday United offered.

The money being talked about for Haaland, 200mill in fees then huge wages, made it not possible for us or anyone else.

If it was possible, dont you think PSG or City would be beating down his door? Sure they would. They need to wait for that 70mill clause so the deal of fees drops to somewhere around 130mill plus huge wages.

Not to sound like I am selling Rom but I believe he was our top realistic target that was not available until recently as Inter tried to balance the books by first selling Hakimi and then others like Martinez.

[LongtimerLurker]

Hold your horses ladies and gents this one looks like it's about to speed up.

Really hope we can get the balance right, I trust TT I just hope we don't rely on playing 5 defenders every game. For me the best part of the 343 was that he used players like CHO and Pulisic at wb and not just full backs. 

Let's hope with Lukaku we can still have another 3 attackers in the line up spread out throughout the system.

[enigma]

Fabrizio Romano must be the hardest working man in football journalism haha. There cannot be a more well known journalist in football. 

[axman2526]

6 minutes ago, LongtimerLurker said:

Hold your horses ladies and gents this one looks like it's about to speed up.

Really hope we can get the balance right, I trust TT I just hope we don't rely on playing 5 defenders every game. For me the best part of the 343 was that he used players like CHO and Pulisic at wb and not just full backs. 

Let's hope with Lukaku we can still have another 3 attackers in the line up spread out throughout the system.

Pretty sure he tweeted the same a day or 2 ago.

Also with his track record of done deal Rom may end up at PSG at the last minute.

[TheGreatestGame]

This seems to be more like if you can't be with the one you love (Haaland), then love the one you're with (Lukaku). Not a bad fall back option as the transfer (pub) closing time was approaching. 

[ForeverCarefree]

Quite a few places now reporting we've agreed a fee with Inter. 

Very happy with this signing. First proper striker we've had since Costa. 

[LongtimerLurker]

Lukaku vs Haaland definitely has pros and cons in favour for each of them. What I will say is Lukaku is a romantic return for me, he should have never gone to Man U and the way him and Conte worked so well just hammered it home for me. He was always meant to be the Diego replacement since he was the player that made way for him I the first place. 

The Salah and KDB mistakes cannot be rectified but, this one can. Funny enough I've said it before but, of all the players we let go prematurely his was always the one that felt wrong at the time. There was no way to know about Salah or KDB but, Romelu seemed like he was our tailor made Drogba replacement and all we had to do was nurture him right.

[evissy]

25 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Quite a few places now reporting we've agreed a fee with Inter. 

Very happy with this signing. First proper striker we've had since Costa. 

Wasn't Timo supposed to be a proper striker? And Morata... 

[TomCFC85]

The deal is done, Romano gave the here we go!

Multiple sources saying this one is wrapped up

[LongtimerLurker]

9 minutes ago, TomCFC85 said:

The deal is done, Romano gave the here we go!

Multiple sources saying this one is wrapped up

 

[Chelsbear]

Welcome home Rom. 

Not the hero we maybe wanted but no doubt the one we need. 

[LongtimerLurker]

We save £2m because of our sell on clause so we wanted £100m but either way we would get the £2m back so final deal worth around £97-8m. Cheaper than Grealish 😉

[Jezz]

After being hesitant about this move, I'm all for this. Welcome home, Rom.

Nearly 10 years to the day since we first signed him, which was August 18 2011.