Am I missing something here ? We are now a serious injury to Costa away from a much worse striker situation to last year. Please tell me Jose has something up his sleeve. Time for a bet on Cavani 6-1 skybet methinks !!!
I would understand CP, however - no need to despair - 28M is great and we might pull one more good striker before the close of this window!! No way we are worse off last year. Drog > Ba + Eto'o Nando = S#!t So Costa is a plus!! And Jose has money to spend thanks to one certain Lukaku & if needed Jose will buy in January.
Goodbye Lukaku. Never rated him since watching one of his interviews. We need men who can dig deep into their reserves and stand up to be counted, not boys. Despite his size, his immature mentality and attitude count heavily against him.
The point I am making is simple, no one knows how good Lukaku is because he hasn't been given a chance by Jose. Others on here say he has no touch, so can't play for us, but neither has Ramires, who also can't pass. I don't believe the stuff about wanting to be " first choice or Im off". I'd go with " I want to play, not warm the bench every week", and fair enough too. The manager makes those decisions and brings dopey kids to heel. I think it's simply about money and FFP, brought about by the ridiculousness of the situation with Torres and his wages. It's called "saving face" in China. If we had got shot of Torres, all the crap about Lukaku would never have arisen and he'd be in our squad.
So you're just making up in your head what happened in order to whinge? Im not happy he is leaving when we still have Torres, I will admit. If anyone of them were going it should have been him. But lets face it, for whatever reason, Lukaku wanted to leave which is why he is gone. And he was not good enough or ready enough to lead our front line as the No.1 goal threat, sorry but he wasn't. And by all accounts he wasn't prepared to play second fiddle to Costa until Jose deemed him ready, which he obviously didn't. So he wanted to go somewhere he will play every week.
You are incorrect Bodanki, I am very up for the next season but think the whole Lukaku issue has been manipulated and badly handled. If Jose doesn't rate him, say so and be done with it, but he has never ever said he can't play. If he has a "a bad attitude" fix it! In the end its money that is behind the issue, start and finish. Jose will bring in a proven striker ASAP, and another good prospect bites the dust. Thats the Chelsea way, I know it, most people know it, and I don't like it. Notice Bertrand now on loan to Southampton, and he has achieved what Jose hasn't, a CL medal at Chelsea.
More likely he wasn't prepared to play third fiddle behind Torres who gets picked despite the fact he's a non goal scoring striker.
Bertrand wasn't going to get play time with Azpilicueta and Felipe Luis ahead of him was he? So why not loan him out? We have adequate cover for that area anyway and Ryan gets to play PL football every week, win/win. It's not always as simple as saying "fix it", he's a person not a toaster.
Bud, sorry, my first comment about black holes was tongue in cheek. I am definitely not over the moon that we have sold Lukaku, but it is what it is. I am more disillusioned than most with the way Chelsea treat their youngsters, if you have ever seen any of my posts about our youth academy you will know. I guess at the end of the day we don't know exactly what was said between Jose and Lukaku. All I know is last season, Jose came out and said he asked Lukaku to stay and he said no and insisted on a loan move. IF he had stayed last season, given how s**t our strikers were, he WOULD have been played......
There's no need to slag Lukaku off in the press is there though? If Jose doesn't really rate him, he doesn't need to come out and say it, he says it by letting him go on loan last year and selling him this year. As for Lukaku being a good prospect, he is but we didn't develop him, we bought him just like we bought Drogba, Lampard, Cole, Cech etc. So if we can move on a guy that has had 0 impact in our first team these last 3 years for a tidy profit to enable us to buy better / someone prepared to fight for his place then that's no bad thing. Lukaku leaving may also mean more of a chance in the long run for other exciting youth products like Bamford, Feruz etc.
No worries Bodanki, I read too much into it !! I do know more often than not we hold similar opinions, especially about the youngsters. I also realise we cant play all of them, and Jose knows just a little bit more than I do !! I just hate to see players like Bertrand fail to get a go, when he's a very good and versatile player all down the left side. Still, I look forward to seeing how we line up and how we approach this season, hopefully with a bit more attacking intent than last. Striker and goalkeeper are 2 areas where Jose will need to be tough and astute, better him than me.
Lukaku had 2 years left on his contract and with FFP we can't afford to turn away nigh on £30m for someone who was going to be second choice, otherwise he would've f**ed off for a lot cheaper or even for free. I find it truly unbelievable that you're managing to blame Mourinho. I want Torres off the books more than most, but even I don't think our strike force merits the term 'piss poor'. We've just banked £28m, I'll be very surprised if we don't use some of it.
I'd like to see more youngsters get a go too but if they are not getting in the team, there comes a point when you have to question whether they are of the required standard. We don't see them day in day out in training like Jose does. With FFP clearly being followed by the club, we aren't going to be buying players for the sake of it anymore and I'm sure Roman wants to see some return on his investment in all these youth players. I'm sure more will get a chance in the next year or 2.
I'm not blaming Mourinho, I have already said this was always about money, and I also don't believe for a moment the reports that Lukaku demanded to be first choice or he'd be off. Its pretty obvious Jose didn't rate Lukaku or he would have kept him. He has all the power to bring any mouthy kid to heel. What I did say is that Jose rarely gives kids a chance and sells them on because he always has the money to buy a replacement. I stick by that, and will only believe he intends to bring on kids when he does it, not just because he says he will. Already people saying he will buy another striker now has funds from Lukakus sale. A couple of days ago, our business was all over on July 19th.
I think it's a shame that lukaku was linked with several top clubs before he moved to Chelsea. After moving to Chelsea he hasn't been given a chance on the big stage and instead has had to ask for loan moves to teams lower down the league to get game time. You bought a top prospect which made sure no other big club could sign him and then made a big profit off of ****ing with the boys career. Don't think anyone should be annoyed with him or his attitude to be perfectly honest....
We bought an 18 year old kid and loaned him out, how dare we! He had a couple of seasons loaned out, as pretty much every ****ing club does with teenagers, then offered him a chance to be in our squad and he didnt want it, he wanted another loan spell, then he wanted to be sold..
Do you have any proof at all that it's all down to him? And also so what if he forced through loan moves? Staying at the club he would have been way down the pecking order for strikers. You've mismanaged him and could have had a quality young player on your hands. It basically deprived him of a chance at another top European club as they where all sniffing around before your lot signed him.
So you think, in 2011, as an 18 year old, we should have started him over two time golden boot winner Drogba and £50m Torres (in hindsight probably yes to the latter but how were we to know Torres would move down South and forget to bring his talent with him). Of course he would have been down in the pecking order, he was 18 years old ffs, what does he expect? To sign for a top European club and be be numero uno? There is the wacky idea of maybe, after being on loan, joining the squad for the season and I don't know, maybe showing your manager what you can do and earning your place in the ****ing team.......
