Lukaku to Chelsea? €100m bid + player rejected

charlenefan

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Exactly correct. He still has the occasional horrific first touch and he still looks highly uncomfortable when he has to play in controlled spaces.
He couldn’t be less unfit than at Utd though. Half the fans would have run more than him in some games.
He’ll do ok he’ll score some goals and he’ll throw his toys out of the pram when someone suggests he can’t hack it in the important games (he can’t). Chelsea are welcome to him, it will be a hugely expensive mistake unless some Italian club will buy him back after 18 months for 75% of what Chelsea pay him
Don't forget the finger pointing ;)
 

GifLord

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United in sin

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People do that shit all the time - praise the league, club, players they play with/in
It's not merely a PR statement, he actually provided context but I guess you can draw whatever conclusions you want from it.

It seems to me most British football fans look down on every other top 5 league. Spain was only good because of Real, Barcelona and Atletico despite Sevilla dominating Europa league, Germany and France have one team farmer's leagues, serie A is slow (all of them are apparently), etc. Lukaku has proved himself in England though
 

GifLord

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It's not merely a PR statement, he actually provided context but I guess you can draw whatever conclusions you want from it.

It seems to me most British football fans look down on every other top 5 league. Spain was only good because of Real, Barcelona and Atletico despite Sevilla dominating Europa league, Germany and France have one team farmer's leagues, serie A is slow (all of them are apparently), etc. Lukaku has proved himself in England though
Because people do that all the time. Not just in Football but sports in general when they switch to a new club they praise the new enviroment as being more challenging than the previous one, then 10 years into retirement they start to talk about their most challenging teams,players and completely forget about what they said during their play time. Has happened before
 

Kentonio

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It's not merely a PR statement, he actually provided context but I guess you can draw whatever conclusions you want from it.

It seems to me most British football fans look down on every other top 5 league. Spain was only good because of Real, Barcelona and Atletico despite Sevilla dominating Europa league, Germany and France have one team farmer's leagues, serie A is slow (all of them are apparently), etc. Lukaku has proved himself in England though
I generally agree with your point, but the French league really is pretty trash.
 

passing-wind

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Chelsea fans will soon learn to be indifferent about Lukaku. During his time here, even though he scored a decent number of goals, I never felt more than 'meh' about him.
Consider the context he played under a dinosaur in Mourinho and the midfield United had was inept, it lacked balance and quality. I don't think the club had the conditions for Romelu to succeed I say this on the basis of his ability he's not a player who will make his own chances.

Contrast to Tuchel who's established himself as one of the best managers around. Chelsea have a very combative diverse midfield to give attackers service, they use wide inside forwards with pace which should give Lukaku spaces where defenders are pre occupied.

Lukaku doing well at Chelsea will be more to how the system caters for his strengths. Haaland has done well within the confides of German football however he's by no means a sure bet in the English league.
 

Oranges038

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If they play together Werner and Lukaku would surely have to the most wasteful strike partnership in football.
 

stevoc

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United fans never took to him. He'll do a couple years at Chelsea before moving to PSG. Will score goals but is not a €120m player.
Yeah 2 years tops before he's on the move again, probably back to Italy.
 

AgentSmith

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It's not merely a PR statement, he actually provided context but I guess you can draw whatever conclusions you want from it.

It seems to me most British football fans look down on every other top 5 league. Spain was only good because of Real, Barcelona and Atletico despite Sevilla dominating Europa league, Germany and France have one team farmer's leagues, serie A is slow (all of them are apparently), etc. Lukaku has proved himself in England though
The top scorers in Serie A are always an odd selection though and not one that supports the argument that it’s difficult for forwards to score in that league given the relative quality on this list and the numbers they’re able to produce:

2020/21:
Ronaldo - 29
Lukaku - 24
Muriel - 22
Vlahovic - 21
Immobile - 20

2019/20:
Immobile - 36
Ronaldo - 31
Lukaku - 23
Caputo - 21
Zapata - 18

2018/19:
Quagliarella - 26
Zapata - 23
Piatek - 22
Ronaldo - 21
Milik - 17

2017/18:
Immobile - 29
Icardi - 29
Dybala - 22
Quagliarella - 19
Mertens - 18

2016/17:
Dzeko - 29
Mertens - 28
Belotti - 26
Icardi - 24
Higuain - 24

Immobile is the stand out example for me because I thought he looked really poor at the Euros, as well as having a torrid time at Dortmund, yet he’s consistently been the best goal scorer in Serie A over the last 5 years.

And then another example would be Dzeko whose best tally at City was 16 but then goes to Roma, at 30 years old, and scores 29. Even Zlatan was scoring at a rate that was comparable to his peak last season, before his injury, at 39 having spent the last few years playing in the MLS essentially recovering from an ACL injury.

Serie A just seems to be a league where CFs, particularly physical ones, have a relatively easier time of it when it comes to putting up big numbers that they’d struggle to match elsewhere.

Having said that, Lukaku has for the majority of his career been a 1 in 2 striker so I fully expect him to continue in that vein for Chelsea, especially if they give him the same number of chances they were gifting Werner last season.

20 goals next season for Lukaku and about 253 finger points seems a solid guess.
 

WeePat

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'Unfinished business' will probably be the overriding theme in the first club interview after he signs.
 

Powderfinger

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Unpopular opinion I'm sure but I'm not convinced that Lukaku is a better player than Werner.

Everybody in England takes for granted that Werner is this irredeemable pissmerchant in front of goal but until last year he had a decent enough conversion rate in terms of G - xG (non-penalty), certainly no worse than Lukaku. I wouldn't necessarily assume that last season is predictive of the future, at least moreso than the rest of his track record.

Werner is probably best off played as a wide forward anyway but is Lukaku the guy you want him playing off? He seems to have showed different sides of his game in Italy, where I didn't really watch him, so maybe so. But I wouldn't think that the Lukaku we saw at Everton and United is someone you want to pair with Werner.
 

macheda14

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It's not merely a PR statement, he actually provided context but I guess you can draw whatever conclusions you want from it.

It seems to me most British football fans look down on every other top 5 league. Spain was only good because of Real, Barcelona and Atletico despite Sevilla dominating Europa league, Germany and France have one team farmer's leagues, serie A is slow (all of them are apparently), etc. Lukaku has proved himself in England though
Firstly Ronaldo played in England ages ago, our league has changed immensely since then. Secondly and this is quite a crass way of disproving his/your point.

Serie A last season: 1,163 total goals (3.06 per match)
Premier League: 1,023 (2.69 per match)

It is not more difficult to score in Italy. Ronaldo probably finds it harder because he is just not quite as good as he was, yet he's still great. It's on balance pretty similar and maybe marginally easier in Italy.
 

Gringo

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Unpopular opinion I'm sure but I'm not convinced that Lukaku is a better player than Werner.

Everybody in England takes for granted that Werner is this irredeemable pissmerchant in front of goal but until last year he had a decent enough conversion rate in terms of G - xG (non-penalty), certainly no worse than Lukaku. I wouldn't necessarily assume that last season is predictive of the future, at least moreso than the rest of his track record.

Werner is probably best off played as a wide forward anyway but is Lukaku the guy you want him playing off? He seems to have showed different sides of his game in Italy, where I didn't really watch him, so maybe so. But I wouldn't think that the Lukaku we saw at Everton and United is someone you want to pair with Werner.
Werner will probably rotate with Pulisic on that left forward side. Creating runs and dragging defenders out of position creating space for Lukaku.
 

Powderfinger

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Werner will probably rotate with Pulisic on that left forward side. Creating runs and dragging defenders out of position creating space for Lukaku.
Yeah, I think that is probably the plan.

I wonder whether Tuchel will stick with three at the back. Assuming Lukaku starts almost every important game at CF, that formation effectively leaves only leaves two positions for Werner, Pulisic, Havertz, Mount, and Ziyech.
 

United in sin

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Yeah like Phil Jones. He's white and topping the meme chart in 2017-2019. No disrespect at all.
That's a terrible comparison.

Jones is rightfully a meme footballer. Before he was he's the guy who Fergie once predicted would be one of United's greatest players ever and who was considered the golden boy of his generation, lauded by united supporters for doing jack shit really. It took years for people to lose faith in Jones

The other is a proven goalscorer who as it stands is the third most expensive player of all time when you consider accumulative fees paid for him (soon to be first by some distance if Chelsea complete his signing) and is still treated as a joke by a good number of united supporters
 
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matherto

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He’s guaranteed to score against us and the headlines will be written about United’s regret.

The headline writers will conveniently forget how much of a downgrade from Ibra he was and all of his flaws Will cease to exist.
 

bosskeano

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if he was white he wouldn't be disrespected as he is.

He's a top proven goalscorer.
Yeah like Phil Jones. He's white and topping the meme chart in 2017-2019. No disrespect at all.
if Lukaku didn't have the first touch of Phil Jones he wouldn't be "disrespected" so much.....Phil Jones is an absolute donkey of a player thankfully Lukaku isn't that bad just how a shocking first touch
 

Yorke to Cole

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If he does that, I will just remember the fact that we have young talent like Greenwood and we are trying to create a young team fluid attacking team with fast pace and precision in finishing. I will also remember he was a Mourinho straight jacket signing who he branded a "general" when all he did was throw his hands up in the air and blame everyone else.
 

roonster09

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Now all of a sudden he is as good or better than Kane :lol:
 

Yorke to Cole

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He’s guaranteed to score against us and the headlines will be written about United’s regret.

The headline writers will conveniently forget how much of a downgrade from Ibra he was and all of his flaws Will cease to exist.


[If he does that, I will just remember the fact that we have young talent like Greenwood and we are trying to create a young team fluid attacking team with fast pace and precision in finishing. I will also remember he was a Mourinho straight jacket signing who he branded a "general" when all he did was throw his hands up in the air and blame everyone else.
Quote ReplyEditQUOTE]
 

tenpoless

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That's a terrible comparison.

Jones is rightfully a meme footballer. Before he was he's the guy who Fergie once predicted would be one of United's greatest players ever and who was considered the golden boy of his generation, lauded by united supporters for doing jack shit really. It took years for people to lose faith in Jones

The other is a proven goalscorer who as it stands is the third most expensive player of all time when you consider accumulative fees paid for him (soon to be first by some distance if Chelsea complete his signing) and is still treated as a joke by a good number of united supporters
Phil Jones is a joke and people make fun of him. Lukaku might also be a joke thats why people make fun of him. Surely its about their awkward abilities on the ball/clumsiness that caused it than skin colour. So basically by the end of the day there are certain attributes that make players easy to laugh at and skin colour isnt one of them. If its about race, Phil Jones wouldnt have been laughed at for so much. Thats my point.
 

matherto

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if Lukaku didn't have the first touch of Phil Jones he wouldn't be "disrespected" so much.....Phil Jones is an absolute donkey of a player thankfully Lukaku isn't that bad just how a shocking first touch
Lukaku IS a donkey.
 

roonster09

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People do that shit all the time - praise the league, club, players they play with/in
Exactly. It was great defensive league now it isn't.

In the last few seasons Roma, Atalanta, Napoli all played attacking football and scored lot of goals.
 
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Bondi77

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I just want to see his trampolinelike first touch again and thankfully not wearing a Utd shirt :rolleyes:
 

roonster09

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Btw @GifLord will be the most hated posters for Chelsea fans this season. Get ready for the videos :D
 

simonhch

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Im genuine baffled that Chelsea would spend this on him. The fluid movement of their front three was a real strength last season. Admittedly he provides something they don’t really have, but he’s so static by comparison, I am surprised they are investing such funds in him.

I genuinely feel like he only excelled because he went down a level to Serie A. He’ll score goals in the prem but it’ll come at a cost to the predictability and effectiveness of the team IMO. I think the funds would’ve been better used elsewhere. Lukaku will bring as many downs as he does ups, and you’d don’t spend 100m+ to put a player on the bench.
 

Rajiztar

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Im genuine baffled that Chelsea would spend this on him. The fluid movement of their front three was a real strength last season. Admittedly he provides something they don’t really have, but he’s so static by comparison, I am surprised they are investing such funds in him.

I genuinely feel like he only excelled because he went down a level to Serie A. He’ll score goals in the prem but it’ll come at a cost to the predictability and effectiveness of the team IMO. I think the funds would’ve been better used elsewhere. Lukaku will bring as many downs as he does ups, and you’d don’t spend 100m+ to put a player on the bench.
Desperation to get goal scorer will make you do things like that. It's really disappointing to sign him for that much not denying that. Of course haaland will be better but Dortmund don't want to sell or haaland don't want to come then board have to look at other options.

Tuchel still loves pace in his team. His counter press counter system will benefit more with Lukaku. He is run through channel type as well with very good pace and have good shot in him.

With Lukaku it's definite improvement on what we have already price only matters if he failed to deliver though.

I am desperate as well to look at positives about Lukaku coming home.:lol:
 

Tallis

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Not only do we a 5% sell-on, it seems Inter haven’t paid us some of the money for the transfer. This deal seems to be beneficial jn several ways - we get our money, Chelsea cant buy Haaland, and Chelsea basically write off Werner (who is on 300k Euors per week i believe) thus creating more deadweight in their squad. And yes, I know Werner can still play but I am skeptical it works
 

Idxomer

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So the EPL is basically going to be the Super League within a few years..
I mean it already is, why would anyone even follow Seria A this season?

La Liga is the only other league that could rival the PL but they're probably gonna have another campaign where the least worst of the big three wins, also the two best players in RM and Barca are well over 30.
 

KM

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If Lukaku joins Chelsea and then Abraham joins Atalanta then I think there's a good chance of Tammy out scoring Lukaku in the league.
Not a reflection of player quality btw but a reflection of how attacking Atalanta are and how poor the Italian League is.
 

sugar_kane

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So how long til Tuchel loses his shit with Lukaku?

Rom is like the Jose of players, you have to have him at actually your club and see him every week over 90 minutes to appreciate why he is so frustrating.

From afar it’s easy to be blinded by the stats.

Seems like me to be an owner signing rather than a tactical one.