Romelu Lukaku back to Chelsea - and gone again!

[Gol15]

I say we go big and sign Haaland for 100m, go big and then we got Mount, Havertz and him as a trio for the next 8 years no worries about that.

[BordeauxBlue]

1 minute ago, Gol15 said:

I say we go big and sign Haaland for 100m, go big and then we got Mount, Havertz and him as a trio for the next 8 years no worries about that.

Zero chance Haaland sticks around that long with Lardass as his agent. 

He'll already be working on where to flog him next to get his beak wet. 

[ozboy]

I am in two minds. Not a big success at ManU but did well at Everton. I am a fan of Conte and so I watched Inter quite a bit this season. Lukaku -layer well, held the ball up, distributed it, worked really hard in attack all season long, hardly missed any game time, definitely can finish. He and Hakimi teamed up well as did he and Martinez. 
you can’t say football in Italy is open but it is a bit slower and the pressing less intense from what I see on tv. 
I wonder how many more big seasons he has i him but Chelsea have. Big squad and can rotate -layers well. 

wener and havertz both scored heaps in Germany but struggled in their first season here. Lukakus adavantahe is he is well experienced in our league. 

[DarkMata]

1 hour ago, ForeverCarefree said:

When we signed Morata he didn't have a good goal scoring record and had never established himself as first choice at any club he'd been at. 

We overpaid and gambled on Morata. 

Lukaku has a proven track record of scoring goals, isn't past his peak and is currently in the best form of his career. 

He's the 7th top goal scorer (24) in Europe's top leagues behind Lewandowki (41), Messi (30), Ronaldo (29), Andre Silva (28), Haaland (27), Mbappe (26). 

The players with more goals than him are either the wrong side of 30 or will cost twice as much (if not more) than the rumoured free for Lukaku. Except Andre Silva who doesn't have as proven a track record (bombed pretty badly at Milan) for goal scoring and it's yet to be seen if this was an outlier for him or signs of what's to come. 

So if not Lukaku, then who? Because there's not many players with a record like his available. 

I do recall many of us trying to convince ourselves that Morata was going to be a good signing, the same is going on here.  If we’re all honest we don’t really want Lukaku, there’s just not many options, but it doesn’t mean we should spend record amounts to bring him here.  
 

There’s a reason a Man Utd side that wasn’t regularly getting in the top 4 at the time got rid.  16 & 12 goals is nothing special even for an average Utd side, Watkins and Bamford have similar this season.  Goals aren’t the only thing that makes a top player.  As for his Serie A stats there’s a long list of average players that have looked good in the Italian league recently.
 

I’m not convinced he’s this new improved player, he looked like the same clumsy technically lacking guy in the Europa league game vs Man U this season.  He’s probably had a good confidence boost playing in serie A, but when he gets back to the Premiership his ego will get knocked back to the ground and he’ll be sat on the worlds most expensive bench next to Kepa.

[goose]

Would rather we don’t go down this line of Lukaku. Good enough player but I can’t see that he has improved that much since Utd. I think we would be paying out way over the odds in what will turn out to be a fairly average player for us.

[zolawannabe25]

If the front line needs looking at and we can’t get haaland or Kane I’d prefer to get rid of ziyech and get either sancho or Martinez in and play havertz as a number 9.

We’d need a centre back and a holding midfielder as well but if we went with a back four and played

holding midfielder

kante/kovacic 

mount/Gallagher 

sancho/Hudson Odoi

werner/pulisic

havertz 

 

I can see it being similar to Man City this season where we don’t have a focal point who will score all the goals but 3 or 4 players who can score 10-15 goals each. Maybe a less high profile striker can come in as well but I can see every player getting a lot of games but a strong group for injuries in there. 

 

 

[Scott]

Someone might want to ask Tuchel if he rates Lukaku first. I mean why buy him to sit on the bench while little Timo starts every game.

[mwblue10]

I still doubt that we will sign a big name expensive striker. Think we are better off grabbing Sancho, moving to a back 4, and playing some version of a 4-4-2 or 4-2-4. Lukaku does seem to be the most likely at this point, if we do sign a striker.

[Mouwry]

5 hours ago, Scott said:

Someone might want to ask Tuchel if he rates Lukaku first. I mean why buy him to sit on the bench while little Timo starts every game.

Came here to post this. 

For me it all comes down to Tuchel. If he truly believes Lukaku makes this team title/multi trophy challengers, bring him in no question. 

Personally the top of my list is a DM and CB. I don’t see the 3 back working as well next season. Rather go to a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3. I have more faith that our new attackers will be able to turn it around next season than I do in the midfield and D being able to handle a 4 back. 

I’d like to see Havertz in the Firmino role with Werner wide in a 4-3-3. I just don’t trust Rudi or an aging Silva together in the back 4. With a Marquinhos or Varane & a Rice I’m sleeping easier.

Regardless if Tuchel says he wants Lukaku you won’t hear a peep from me. He has been incredible and in him I trust! (Except for the Tammy situation which I believe is gonna bite us but CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL!)

Edited May 28, 2021 by Mouwry

[ducavis]

6 hours ago, ozboy said:

I am in two minds. Not a big success at ManU but did well at Everton. I am a fan of Conte and so I watched Inter quite a bit this season. Lukaku -layer well, held the ball up, distributed it, worked really hard in attack all season long, hardly missed any game time, definitely can finish. He and Hakimi teamed up well as did he and Martinez. 
you can’t say football in Italy is open but it is a bit slower and the pressing less intense from what I see on tv. 
I wonder how many more big seasons he has i him but Chelsea have. Big squad and can rotate -layers well. 

wener and havertz both scored heaps in Germany but struggled in their first season here. Lukakus adavantahe is he is well experienced in our league. 

If you buy him you might as well buy Hakimi, not sure we have the delivery to make it work.

[icecoolguy22]

I'd take him for 80M, not the first choice but he's a far better finisher than anyone we got. There's no reason we can't play him and Werner together, you'd trust Lukaku to finish those crosses if Werner keeps putting them into the box.

[Argo]

On 27/05/2021 at 22:51, DarkMata said:

I do recall many of us trying to convince ourselves that Morata was going to be a good signing, the same is going on here.  If we’re all honest we don’t really want Lukaku, there’s just not many options, but it doesn’t mean we should spend record amounts to bring him here.  
 

There’s a reason a Man Utd side that wasn’t regularly getting in the top 4 at the time got rid.  16 & 12 goals is nothing special even for an average Utd side, Watkins and Bamford have similar this season.  Goals aren’t the only thing that makes a top player.  As for his Serie A stats there’s a long list of average players that have looked good in the Italian league recently.
 

I’m not convinced he’s this new improved player, he looked like the same clumsy technically lacking guy in the Europa league game vs Man U this season.  He’s probably had a good confidence boost playing in serie A, but when he gets back to the Premiership his ego will get knocked back to the ground and he’ll be sat on the worlds most expensive bench next to Kepa.

If we win tomorow and sign Lukaku on Monday my feel good factor from the former trumph will be instantly ruined and I genuinely mean that.

[Malcolm9]

Put it this way, I believe if we had Lukaku playing this season we'd be higher than fourth and we'd have won the FA Cup.

[axman2526]

12 hours ago, Argo said:

If we win tomorow and sign Lukaku on Monday my feel good factor from the former trumph will be instantly ruined and I genuinely mean that.

Yikes you really dont like Lukaku. I dont rate him either but if we win today and on monday sign back David Luiz and Willian I will still be over the moon.

[jack_super_class]

On 28/05/2021 at 03:48, mwblue10 said:

I still doubt that we will sign a big name expensive striker. Think we are better off grabbing Sancho, moving to a back 4, and playing some version of a 4-4-2 or 4-2-4. Lukaku does seem to be the most likely at this point, if we do sign a striker.

I think the club will look to get both. Its being reported Lukaku will cost around £60M. The sales Of Tomori to Milan, Moses to Moscow and Ugbo to Fulham already pay over half of that for Lukaku.

[mwblue10]

5 hours ago, jack_super_class said:

I think the club will look to get both. Its being reported Lukaku will cost around £60M. The sales Of Tomori to Milan, Moses to Moscow and Ugbo to Fulham already pay over half of that for Lukaku.

I definitely could now see that happening. In the 2 days since my post, there’s been some reporting that we’ll be after both (Matt Law specifically). If so, I think it makes our team stronger, no question.

[Ballack & Blu]

I’d rather we go a different direction, say he returns and doesn’t hit the ground running, the bashing he will get from our fans, and the rest of the knobheads out there will be an Avalanche of abuse he doesn’t deserve..

[1manwent2moan]

On 26/05/2021 at 23:27, Deino said:

Conte has got to be the most mercenary manager ever. As soon as he knows that there's no money for a transfer kitty, he leaves.

Mourinho should have been like that too. If the board won't back your plans, the manager is the one who's reputation is damaged.

[LongtimerLurker]

If we sign him I won't be upset, do I think there's better alternatives yes but there's a whole lot worse we could do. I don't however, like the idea of paying upwards of £70m if it's not a first choice target. Last time we did that we ended up with Kepa.

As bad as his finishing at times has been I think a pre season with TT could be enough to get Timo back to his Leipzig days. If we have a clinical Timo do we really need a number 9 assuming Kai plays through the middle and finds some form off the back of this successful campaign.

Just food for thought, if we can't get Haaland, Lewandowski or Kane I'd rather stick with what we have. Pep and Klopp both have gained success recently without a traditional number 9 and now so has Tuchel so why change? Winning the prem requires at least 2 prolific players, in Liverpools case it was primarily their wingers with Firmino complimenting.

[dansubrosa]

Yeah, if we had the choice between Werner or Lukaku last summer, I’m certain 99% of us would have gone for Werner.

Let’s stick with him, unless we can sign Haaland. 

[PhilH930]

I wouldn't go for Lukaku.  Doesn't do well in tight spaces against deep defenses, so not sure this really addresses our problem.

[The Don Antonio]

On 27/05/2021 at 16:32, Gol15 said:

I say we go big and sign Haaland for 100m, go big and then we got Mount, Havertz and him as a trio for the next 8 years no worries about that.

Totally agree with this. Haaland is world class and will be like our Drogba for a long time if we play it right and if he wants to leave us we will make a huge profit off him. Lukaku is the same striker that he was in Man u. He just got to bully average Serie A defenders

[OneTommyLangley]

4 minutes ago, The Don Antonio said:

Totally agree with this. Haaland is world class and will be like our Drogba for a long time if we play it right and if he wants to leave us we will make a huge profit off him. Lukaku is the same striker that he was in Man u. He just got to bully average Serie A defenders

Agree we need a Drogba II, we are the Champions of Europe and should be able to attract the best thats out there.

[mojo]

 

[Scott Harris]

Lukaku would be extremely underwhelming. 

I remember how the majority were massively against signing him and were overjoyed that we got Morata instead. What makes Lukaku such a great choice today compared to back then? I don't see a player that has remarkably improved since going to Italy.