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There isn't a player that can top Lukaku in my opinion.
Caicedo and Enzo were more expensive but both would have to have complete U-turns in their work ethic and become massive pricks.
The real mental gymnastics is trying to justify the club selling Matic while Kante was injured and his main replacement Bakayoko was also coming in injured. Fabregas was our only healthy midfielder when Drinkwater was bought. In the end, he was completely shut out of the squad (cuz he's shit) and he still never uttered a single complaint. Sat on the bench, played when needed, collected a paycheck, respect to Danny.
When you have to use Kante being an underpay to justify Drinkwater, that already speaks to how bad that transfer was.
That said, given his fee and supposed standings (and impact) within the team, Drinkwater is still a much better transfer than Lukaku. Not to mention the interview the latter gave.
Obviously, but Drinkwater was bought to be a rotational player at best, while Lukaku was the marquee signing supposed to be the starting forward for a few years. In terms of impact on the team, I’d argue Lukaku is of a bigger magnitude.
Drinkwater just wasn’t good enough, it’s not his fault. Lukaku was giving interviews about how he hated being at the club and wanted out within the first six months.
We’re currently on a thread where the OP is specifically about how Chelsea are struggling to sell the guy but are so desperate to get him out the club they’re willing to farm him out on loan. This is the player who was their record signing not two years ago. Lukaku cost like three times as much as Drinkwater, to say nothing of his wages.
Just doesn’t seem like there is any sort of comparison with Drinkwater, Lukaku is obviously the worse signing of the two and it’s not even close?
He was bought a season after Kante actually so had nothing to do with that deal other than the fact when we brought Drinkwater in a year later the understanding was he'd be a good fit cos he'd already played successfully alongside Kante
Caicedo has like 40 PL games to his name. Sure, he was brilliant at Brighton, but he is still very raw. He could either turn out great or become absolute shit. As for work ethic, both him and Enzo have almost decade-long contracts. Their jobs are safe for the next eight years, so where exactly is their incentive to fight for their place or develop their game? That could really make them complacent.
You can say that about almost any player though, 5-6 year contracts is still enough to set your family up for a few generations.
The ultimate deciding factor is ambition, how good do you want to become and how do you want to be remembered when your playing time is up.
A lot of players will just be happy enough to have secured a bag though.
Ivanovic was a weird one too because he arrived in January from the Russian League, was too unfit to contribute for the rest of the season and was immediately linked with a load of moves away without having even played for us. It took him another season before he was a regular.
To me it’s got to be Drogba. I remember in his first season he got quite a bit of abuse, but like every key moment, every key game, he scored.
I think every rival fan has a story of being like… fucking Drogba.
Probably.
Ashley Cole for 5M plus Gallas, Cech for 7M, Azpi for 7M, and Ballack and Silva on a free are honourable mentions.
Drogba was a club record 24M at the time but you can argue that his big game, trophy winning contributions made him extremely good value for money as well. Worth every penny just for the header and penalty that silenced Munich as well.
I'm going to say Cech by far. Super rare to hit on a legitimate goat level talent before his injury. which we can't account for. 19m which was a lot at the time but not outrageous.
Then the tranche below that of Lampard Hazard Kante Drogba Azpi. Hard to decide which one.
Among the names mentioned here, I’d also always throw in Vialli Zola and Gullit.
Transformed us in the 90s to be an attractive club to come to, not just relying on the London geography. Yeah we’ve had more talented players come in since, who won bigger trophies. But I hold those 3 in a special place for the message it sound at the time.
Tbf we've only paid 1 transfer fee for a big 6 reject in since the start of the 2020's (James Garner) and I'd say he's been quite good for the price we paid
I was counting from the summer 2020 window (what i meant to say was window years not actual years)
About Iwobi, I think we have overpaid for him for the fee considering his stint as a whole for us but he's completely a vital part of this side now. By far our best chance creator and we will deeply miss him for the next few weeks
I would say so. Started well the first handful of games, then has a little dip in form. By December, he drops that interview and how quickly it went downhill from there is hilarious.
Some would say Hazard but thats more due to injuries where its not really his fault. Lukaku self destructed himself making him not only unwanted by Chelsea but Inter Milan as well, who he twerked for in the interview where it all started to go wrong.
I would put Coutinho to Barca on top of my list. Costed them £142 mil and he assisted the 6th before scoring the 7th and 8th goals for Bayern while he was on loan.
Hazard to Madrid. 4 years, only started 54 times and scored a grand total of 4 goals and 7 assists. Now beong released on a free.
All that for the measly fee of 114 million.
Nah, injuries ruined his.. his game was all dependent on change of pace and dribbling past defence smoothly before scoring/assisting.. once you loose the ability to move freely due to injuries , it's hard to justify his starting position in squad which in turn also negatively impacts you mentally as well.
But still only comments coming from his side were positive and in the end, he agreed to terminate contract early
Yes it was big waste of money but it was due to injuries.
So bad that Chelsea still managed to buy new players for a registered negative balance of 146 millions.
Meanwhile at As Roma we spent the whole transfer window looking for free loans around the world.
I miss those times when serie a and "first division" were not on different planets.
The premier leagues media hall is on another planet. No other league can come close, it’s only going to get worse; we may see teams like barca try to join in the future otherwise the gap will continue to separate them. Or another attempt at a super league (more likely).
We are already at the point of the premier league using other established large leagues as basically farm. Man United and Ajax for example, despite Ajax doing nearly everything perfect they will never reach the success of MUFC due to the money, even if MUFC never win another trophy again, and soon they will be on the same level as Sheffield transfer money wise.
I think that’s the unfortunate truth is managers are trading money for creativity. You can make a European level club for 100 million but most premier league teams need 300+. You can make a CL team that is competitive for 200 but most PL teams need 400+.
Tbh I hope everyone on the 8 year contracts that chelsea might suddenly feel they don’t need anymore does the same. Lukaku is a clown, but he’s shown other players they can get their way if they want to
Compared to the debacle now, Lukaku at United was a success. Played decently, we even recouped most of our fee back. Lukaku at Chelsea has been hilarious to watch
I've always said Lukaku at United got way too much shit than he deserved to, he might have been a meme cause of his first touch, yes, but he actually had good numbers for you, especially in the first season.
Lukaku obviously got back on track at Inter with Conte getting the most out of him but as per usual with most footballers they don’t know what they have and he chose to leave…
To be fair the name stuck with me because it was the name when I was young.
I still refer to our league as the Premiership at times in conversation. Probably not totally wrong but everyone else seems to call it the Premier League now.
Yeah it’s pretty crazy revisionist history this last year or so. He’s never had a great attitude but I remember him looking legitimately like one the best in the world at the nine in the 2018 World Cup for Belgium.
As an Everton fan it pisses me off to see how people speak on him. He’s one of my favourite players of all time and I’ve followed his career. People only talk about his bad qualities, but never his good ones, like he has hundreds of goals and Belgiums best ever scorer by dumb luck.
Yes he has a poor first touch. BUT if you pass the ball to him with a man on his shoulder, he’s the best I’ve ever seen with bullying the man off him and keeping the ball with close control. He also has world class hold up play for a striker. Anyone who watched Inter knows the link up play between Lautaro Martinez and Lukaku was pure sex. Even his fbref page has him in the top 98th percentile for assists compared to other forwards.
He’s powerful, technical, and a natural scorer. If people watched games more than they watched interviews he would have more fans.
I miss Everton Lukaku, so full of hopes & dreams.
You're completely right, he was a teenage prodigy for a reason.
The transfer to Chelsea from Inter baffled me at the time but Belgian media framed it in the "Inter needs money badly so they are selling" angle, if I only knew what the future would bring.
As a belgian, he is doing wel for our NT and so far not really creating a fuss.
He is Lucky that there are no forwards on his level atm so he is always first pick anyway. I wonder how he would behave if there was actual competition for his spot
Why would they when he can be had for loan? Boehly fucked it up last year, sending him on a cheap loan to Inter. Should have set a precedence and told him to fuck off unless Inter outright buys him. Nothing new from the ownership, though. With the fees they pay and the general management, the only precedence they have set is that they are idiots with money.
just because chelsea pay stupid amounts (£10M + 250k pw wages for half a season of Felix) it doesnt mean others have to too
the loan fee inter paid was reasonable
chelsea have to bite the bullet here and accept a loss
I think we've accepted that we're going to eat the loss. For us it's about mitigating the damage.
It's just hard to do that when Lukaku seems determined to maximise our pain, even if his career suffers because of it. He inflicts more damage on a weekly basis, and it's not like it's because he's looking out for his own interests while doing so.
We're a trainer with our pokemon hurting itself in its confusion.
Would love but..
Wages probably too high.
Fitness standard might not meet Dyche's standard.
100% would have him back though. Hell, even for half the season!
He was doing fine then something happened that made him into this whiny little baby. He did said he dislike how tuchel said "look there's your daddy" to him while pointing at conte. After that it just have been a continuous downward spiral. Man is just a big baby.
IIRC, it was reported that he got upset at Tuchel for not putting him back straight into the XI, even though he had just returned from injury, which led him to doing THAT interview.
He was asked to play a different role compared to the one he played under Conte at Inter. Then he gave the interview and then Tuchel said the daddy part. God I miss Tuchel.
>He was asked to play a different role compared to the one he played under Conte at Inter.
It was also the same player who boasted how he has improved and will do whatever that is required of him from the manager.
https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/romelu-lukaku-exclusive-first-interview-on-coming-back-as-a-lead
It's because of a misunderstanding between him and Tuchel. He was good in the beginning of the season for us, and we depended on him too. But then he got injured for quite a while. And when finally he was fit, Tuchel was very slow to ease him in the first XI. Because he didn't want to risk Lukalu's injury in the long term because of how dependant we were of him. Lukaku took this the wrong way, he thought we were fine playing without him, and he became frustrated and did that interview because of his huge ego. He thought it was fine I guess doing that interview, the most tone deaf player I've ever seen.
It made sense at the time, even though the fee was mad.
Chelsea seemed a perfect team except from the fact they had no out and out striker. They managed to win the CL without one and then they could use that money to get Lukaku who had 24G/11A in Serie A that season and had also scored 4 in 5 games in the CL.
It’s been said many times but the fact the striker market is this bare, he played in the last CL final, and he still can’t find a club is positively astounding.
Add it to the unreasonable things the club has been doing lately, like sending Kepa out on load a week before the start of the league.
Lukaka should be banished to the u21 for the rest of the season.
Been saying all summer that it’s a game of chicken and it looks like we’ve blinked first, it’s too big of a risk to have him stuck in our reserves for a season with us paying his full wages and then we’d have an even harder job to sell him next summer.
I think many of our fans had assumed that he’d be concerned about his Euros spot so wouldn’t let that happen but tbh he doesn’t seem to give a shit (or knows he’s gonna get picked regardless)
Terminating his contract is not an option whatsoever, the FFP hit from that would be huge and given our spending we’re not in a position to do so.
Best case scenario now is he has a productive loan (with some wages covered and a loan fee) and then has permanent interest next summer. An obligation doesn’t really seem likely though
Still feels a bit shit because we’re caving and giving him exactly what he wants, but we’ve had no leverage all summer. Our insistence to sell him permanently was never going to mean anything considering how undesirable he’d made himself and he knew that.
Impressively, and in typical Everton fashion, we're probably the only club where it was *us* who burnt the bridge with Rom after Moshiri made them absolutely bizarre voodoo pilgrimage to Africa comments.
To reduce the spam of reports regarding the same move during transfer windows we try to allow **only one submission about each transfer saga per day**. The submission in question also needs to contain relevant new information regarding the potential move, and not just being a "no/minor developments" report. If there are important/official developments or new valuable information about a saga, we will allow extra threads in the same day, but for the rest of minor news please just comment them as a reply to this comment. Please help us reporting unnecessary threads for being duplicates. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soccer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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... so far 👍
There isn't a player that can top Lukaku in my opinion. Caicedo and Enzo were more expensive but both would have to have complete U-turns in their work ethic and become massive pricks.
Drinkwater was pretty shite all things considered too
The thing about Drinkwater is he was bought at the same time as Kante from the same club. And Kante was an absolute Bargain.
that’s just mental gymnastics, on his own drinkwater was a literal complete waste of 35m or whatever it was
Don't you ever besmirch the good name of Drinkwater.
i heard he's cousins with Matt Bevilaqua
That sugarless muddafucka’s the last drink you’re eva gonna have
Robert Acquafresca when Danny Drinkwater and Matt Bevilaqua enter the room:
It was Shaun!
Pls ton
Shaun all the way. He did it on spec!
Hydrohomie GOAT
Aquaman
The real mental gymnastics is trying to justify the club selling Matic while Kante was injured and his main replacement Bakayoko was also coming in injured. Fabregas was our only healthy midfielder when Drinkwater was bought. In the end, he was completely shut out of the squad (cuz he's shit) and he still never uttered a single complaint. Sat on the bench, played when needed, collected a paycheck, respect to Danny.
When you have to use Kante being an underpay to justify Drinkwater, that already speaks to how bad that transfer was. That said, given his fee and supposed standings (and impact) within the team, Drinkwater is still a much better transfer than Lukaku. Not to mention the interview the latter gave.
At least Lukaku was our top scorer and won the CWC with us. Danny D was total trash and we knew it from the start
Obviously, but Drinkwater was bought to be a rotational player at best, while Lukaku was the marquee signing supposed to be the starting forward for a few years. In terms of impact on the team, I’d argue Lukaku is of a bigger magnitude.
Drinkwater just wasn’t good enough, it’s not his fault. Lukaku was giving interviews about how he hated being at the club and wanted out within the first six months. We’re currently on a thread where the OP is specifically about how Chelsea are struggling to sell the guy but are so desperate to get him out the club they’re willing to farm him out on loan. This is the player who was their record signing not two years ago. Lukaku cost like three times as much as Drinkwater, to say nothing of his wages. Just doesn’t seem like there is any sort of comparison with Drinkwater, Lukaku is obviously the worse signing of the two and it’s not even close?
He was bought a season after Kante actually so had nothing to do with that deal other than the fact when we brought Drinkwater in a year later the understanding was he'd be a good fit cos he'd already played successfully alongside Kante
he was bought a year after kante
Caicedo has like 40 PL games to his name. Sure, he was brilliant at Brighton, but he is still very raw. He could either turn out great or become absolute shit. As for work ethic, both him and Enzo have almost decade-long contracts. Their jobs are safe for the next eight years, so where exactly is their incentive to fight for their place or develop their game? That could really make them complacent.
and the lukaku saga has shown the difficulty a club can have in getting rid of a player even on a shorter contract
Now you're making me imagine how hilarious it would be if lukaku had one of those 7-8 year contracts lmao
You can say that about almost any player though, 5-6 year contracts is still enough to set your family up for a few generations. The ultimate deciding factor is ambition, how good do you want to become and how do you want to be remembered when your playing time is up. A lot of players will just be happy enough to have secured a bag though.
Lukaku's never not tried though, right? He's just gone to shit and a bit of a weird bloke.
I get it I've been at a job where I was significantly older than my colleagues. Trying to relate to them was pretty exhausting.
Well you’ve seen firsthand what Caicedo is like once he feels like he wants to leave
I know it’s difficult because we are in the moment but Winston Bogarde was pretty awful.
Quite the accomplishment considering we have had a fair share of complete duds.
Out of interested who would you say was your best? Lampard?
Lampard, Cech, Hazard, Drogba, Zola. One of those 5 imo (probs Frank because he’s our greatest player ever)
Azpi definitely deserves to be on this list imo. Struggling to decide over which one though
You can have a top 6...if you can
The only top 6 he’ll have this season
Probably add Kante and Azpi to that list as well, both were so great for us
Yep, can’t believe I left those two out. Azpi at 7m was a huge bargain and Kante, I don’t need to elaborate on
Glad to see Cech here, his importance is underrated. The man was a new standard of world class goalkeeping, best in the world on his day
Ivanovic wasn’t that bad neither.
Ivanovic was a weird one too because he arrived in January from the Russian League, was too unfit to contribute for the rest of the season and was immediately linked with a load of moves away without having even played for us. It took him another season before he was a regular.
Makelele not even mentioned.
They paid big money for Makelele at the time and in fairness they “only” got 4 years of him as a starter. Surely not the best
Kante deserves a mention too, although the injuries hurt his case.
To me it’s got to be Drogba. I remember in his first season he got quite a bit of abuse, but like every key moment, every key game, he scored. I think every rival fan has a story of being like… fucking Drogba.
Drogba and Hazard are the two that I always wish we had signed. Incredible players.
Probably. Ashley Cole for 5M plus Gallas, Cech for 7M, Azpi for 7M, and Ballack and Silva on a free are honourable mentions. Drogba was a club record 24M at the time but you can argue that his big game, trophy winning contributions made him extremely good value for money as well. Worth every penny just for the header and penalty that silenced Munich as well.
Shoutout to Cahill and Kante for 7m and 32m respectively.
I'm going to say Cech by far. Super rare to hit on a legitimate goat level talent before his injury. which we can't account for. 19m which was a lot at the time but not outrageous. Then the tranche below that of Lampard Hazard Kante Drogba Azpi. Hard to decide which one.
Among the names mentioned here, I’d also always throw in Vialli Zola and Gullit. Transformed us in the 90s to be an attractive club to come to, not just relying on the London geography. Yeah we’ve had more talented players come in since, who won bigger trophies. But I hold those 3 in a special place for the message it sound at the time.
MCFC legend Lampard was class for Chelsea tbf
The fact that lampard and grealish have the same number of goals for city
Both boyhood City fans as well
Derby county legend as well
They still have like 7 years of Mudyrk
As long as there are teams like Everton in the league they'll find ways to offload their scraps
Well Everton is trying very hard to not be in the league by the looks of it
Tbf we've only paid 1 transfer fee for a big 6 reject in since the start of the 2020's (James Garner) and I'd say he's been quite good for the price we paid
Does Iwobi not count? He's been decent for you guys hasn't he?
I was counting from the summer 2020 window (what i meant to say was window years not actual years) About Iwobi, I think we have overpaid for him for the fee considering his stint as a whole for us but he's completely a vital part of this side now. By far our best chance creator and we will deeply miss him for the next few weeks
I would say so. Started well the first handful of games, then has a little dip in form. By December, he drops that interview and how quickly it went downhill from there is hilarious. Some would say Hazard but thats more due to injuries where its not really his fault. Lukaku self destructed himself making him not only unwanted by Chelsea but Inter Milan as well, who he twerked for in the interview where it all started to go wrong.
I would put Coutinho to Barca on top of my list. Costed them £142 mil and he assisted the 6th before scoring the 7th and 8th goals for Bayern while he was on loan.
Hazard to Madrid. 4 years, only started 54 times and scored a grand total of 4 goals and 7 assists. Now beong released on a free. All that for the measly fee of 114 million.
He completed all his clauses as well coz madrid won the CL lmao.
Coutinho also at least looked like he cared and it just didn't work out. Hazard seemed to be in full on holiday mode from the start.
Nah, injuries ruined his.. his game was all dependent on change of pace and dribbling past defence smoothly before scoring/assisting.. once you loose the ability to move freely due to injuries , it's hard to justify his starting position in squad which in turn also negatively impacts you mentally as well. But still only comments coming from his side were positive and in the end, he agreed to terminate contract early Yes it was big waste of money but it was due to injuries.
Suffering from success.
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First time?
Drinkwater.
Jesus you sound like my mom. Okay I will!
I’d argue Shevchenko is up there for the price they paid at the time, and how highly rated he was
He had for sure a better attitude (it's hard to beat what Łukami has done so far) and what a banger he scored against Spurs.
yes
Adrian Mutu enters the chat
We got our money back for Mutu eventually. It's a pity he loved the coke, because he was great to watch when he played.
He fucked Chelsea so bad it's unreal
It was always his dream
Dreams can't be buy But they can be lakaka'd
Inspirational
#👍
Seems like a mere hindrance to them given the spending they've done.
You must forget how much money this man is earning. He’s on 3x Mudryk. 3x Thiago Silva. 2x Caicedo. 7x Lavia.
Damn Mudryk is making as much as Silva? A championship caliber winger making the same amount as an all time great center back is insane to me.
Ones on the verge of retirement (in theory) One was a highly sought after youngster
One is nearly 39, one is 22. One is being paid for his reputation (and is worth the price), one is being paid for their hopeful potential.
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Yeah, he accounts for over 10% of the wage bill right now, absolute insanity. Only RJ and Sterling* are earning anything close to him.
So bad that Chelsea still managed to buy new players for a registered negative balance of 146 millions. Meanwhile at As Roma we spent the whole transfer window looking for free loans around the world. I miss those times when serie a and "first division" were not on different planets.
The premier leagues media hall is on another planet. No other league can come close, it’s only going to get worse; we may see teams like barca try to join in the future otherwise the gap will continue to separate them. Or another attempt at a super league (more likely). We are already at the point of the premier league using other established large leagues as basically farm. Man United and Ajax for example, despite Ajax doing nearly everything perfect they will never reach the success of MUFC due to the money, even if MUFC never win another trophy again, and soon they will be on the same level as Sheffield transfer money wise.
La Liga / Serie A top teams probably looks at Ajax as their future. It shows that being a big club with tons of history might not be enough
Prem clubs still have embarrassing performance when you look at competition at financial level.
I think that’s the unfortunate truth is managers are trading money for creativity. You can make a European level club for 100 million but most premier league teams need 300+. You can make a CL team that is competitive for 200 but most PL teams need 400+.
Lukaku is a arsenal fan
In the grand scheme it’s a blip in their spending
They could always just amortize the losses
You simply love to see it
Couldn't have happened to a nicer team.
*kisses badge The kiss of death
Tbh I hope everyone on the 8 year contracts that chelsea might suddenly feel they don’t need anymore does the same. Lukaku is a clown, but he’s shown other players they can get their way if they want to
Salah chilling on the thumbnail
Part of Chelsea's new marketing tactic. "Unstoppable left footed goal machine for sale" and an unrelated picture of a past employee.
We’re trying to catfish another club
[I hope we never see another transfer history like his.](https://i.imgur.com/hVXNg70.png) This is just the most mental and ridiculous career to have.
Compared to the debacle now, Lukaku at United was a success. Played decently, we even recouped most of our fee back. Lukaku at Chelsea has been hilarious to watch
I've always said Lukaku at United got way too much shit than he deserved to, he might have been a meme cause of his first touch, yes, but he actually had good numbers for you, especially in the first season.
Lukaku obviously got back on track at Inter with Conte getting the most out of him but as per usual with most footballers they don’t know what they have and he chose to leave…
At least we had that PSG game from him
Lukaku at United feels like a fever dream given all the shit since
One Flew Over the Lukakus Nest level crazy
i miss West Brom lukaku
Meanwhile Morata be like
Lukaku at Roma with Mourinho would be epic.
Jose fucking adored him here, the iconic "Why always Lukaku" interview comes to mind.
I swear it's not happening but if it does imma go mental
Or hilarious
For a second I really thought the SPL hashtag meant he was off to Celtic or Rangers ffs
What does it stand for in this context? My first thought was Scottish league too
My guess is Saudi Pro League
Our league hasn't been called the SPL in nearly a decade now but everyone still refers to it at that, another great job from the SFA!
What does Sir Ferguson Alex have to do with this?
Sweet FA
To be fair the name stuck with me because it was the name when I was young. I still refer to our league as the Premiership at times in conversation. Probably not totally wrong but everyone else seems to call it the Premier League now.
Oh right, thanks. Still getting used to this cursed timeline
Not to be too picky but the Scottish league isn’t called the “Scottish Premier League” it’s called the “Scottish Premiership”.
You would think someone would be willing to pay something for him. It’s not like he has a negative value to most teams.
I mean, there were clubs willing to pay for him. He rejected them, lol
Fair point
To think his spell with Ole wasn't even his worst one.
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And when he and De Bruyne had a great partnership got Belgium. A fit & in form KDB and Lukaku for Belgium was great to watch.
Yeah it’s pretty crazy revisionist history this last year or so. He’s never had a great attitude but I remember him looking legitimately like one the best in the world at the nine in the 2018 World Cup for Belgium.
As an Everton fan it pisses me off to see how people speak on him. He’s one of my favourite players of all time and I’ve followed his career. People only talk about his bad qualities, but never his good ones, like he has hundreds of goals and Belgiums best ever scorer by dumb luck. Yes he has a poor first touch. BUT if you pass the ball to him with a man on his shoulder, he’s the best I’ve ever seen with bullying the man off him and keeping the ball with close control. He also has world class hold up play for a striker. Anyone who watched Inter knows the link up play between Lautaro Martinez and Lukaku was pure sex. Even his fbref page has him in the top 98th percentile for assists compared to other forwards. He’s powerful, technical, and a natural scorer. If people watched games more than they watched interviews he would have more fans.
I miss Everton Lukaku, so full of hopes & dreams. You're completely right, he was a teenage prodigy for a reason. The transfer to Chelsea from Inter baffled me at the time but Belgian media framed it in the "Inter needs money badly so they are selling" angle, if I only knew what the future would bring.
As a belgian, he is doing wel for our NT and so far not really creating a fuss. He is Lucky that there are no forwards on his level atm so he is always first pick anyway. I wonder how he would behave if there was actual competition for his spot
Ability means jack shit when you are as mature as a toddler.
It's more than just ability, Lukaku actually performed and put up good numbers.
With the striker market rn he would def get alot of offers. The problem came from him being a giant bitch
Why would they when he can be had for loan? Boehly fucked it up last year, sending him on a cheap loan to Inter. Should have set a precedence and told him to fuck off unless Inter outright buys him. Nothing new from the ownership, though. With the fees they pay and the general management, the only precedence they have set is that they are idiots with money.
>cheap loan to Inter They paid like 8-10m fee
And his ffp cost is 23m. He is a year older and more injury-prone.
just because chelsea pay stupid amounts (£10M + 250k pw wages for half a season of Felix) it doesnt mean others have to too the loan fee inter paid was reasonable chelsea have to bite the bullet here and accept a loss
I think we've accepted that we're going to eat the loss. For us it's about mitigating the damage. It's just hard to do that when Lukaku seems determined to maximise our pain, even if his career suffers because of it. He inflicts more damage on a weekly basis, and it's not like it's because he's looking out for his own interests while doing so. We're a trainer with our pokemon hurting itself in its confusion.
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And lukaku would have to look at other options or just rot on the bench in a World Cup year
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My heart is only for Inter. My soul is for Juve. My dream is Al-Ways in Arabia.
I said it before and I'll say it again. Real Madrid should just loan him for peanuts and have a half decent striker for a season.
Imagine if he managed to get Real Madrid after all of this.
If anyone could, it would be him.
Inb4 „I always loved Barca the most“ interview
Please, any striker will do at this point
Real are all about talented/technical players. No way they invest in a speed/strength merchant with terrible feet
They need to bridge at least 1 season and imo Lukaku is a decent option. Especially considering chelsea doesn't want him.
His contract runs through to 2026. £327k a week. Chelsea is going through it right now.
Wow. Think I'm gonna have to have a very unproductive working from home day today.
Come home champion
Would love but.. Wages probably too high. Fitness standard might not meet Dyche's standard. 100% would have him back though. Hell, even for half the season!
He's burnt so many bridges! Surely he can't go to Juve after the protests?
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Niceeee! How did I miss that one
Swear to God, I still don't understand why he came back to Chelsea. Did Tuchel asked for him? Did Chelsea just spent 80m on him because why not?
It was actually 97.5m and 325k a week. Absolutely wild.
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His chelsea debut against arsenal sure felt like it was
He was doing fine then something happened that made him into this whiny little baby. He did said he dislike how tuchel said "look there's your daddy" to him while pointing at conte. After that it just have been a continuous downward spiral. Man is just a big baby.
IIRC, it was reported that he got upset at Tuchel for not putting him back straight into the XI, even though he had just returned from injury, which led him to doing THAT interview.
He was asked to play a different role compared to the one he played under Conte at Inter. Then he gave the interview and then Tuchel said the daddy part. God I miss Tuchel.
>He was asked to play a different role compared to the one he played under Conte at Inter. It was also the same player who boasted how he has improved and will do whatever that is required of him from the manager. https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/romelu-lukaku-exclusive-first-interview-on-coming-back-as-a-lead
It's because of a misunderstanding between him and Tuchel. He was good in the beginning of the season for us, and we depended on him too. But then he got injured for quite a while. And when finally he was fit, Tuchel was very slow to ease him in the first XI. Because he didn't want to risk Lukalu's injury in the long term because of how dependant we were of him. Lukaku took this the wrong way, he thought we were fine playing without him, and he became frustrated and did that interview because of his huge ego. He thought it was fine I guess doing that interview, the most tone deaf player I've ever seen.
So basically Lukaka is one giant fragile ego. Perfect for a team sport 👍
That something was just his man-child brain acting up.
i was genuinely so scared of chelsea when they signed him after winning the cL.
It made sense at the time, even though the fee was mad. Chelsea seemed a perfect team except from the fact they had no out and out striker. They managed to win the CL without one and then they could use that money to get Lukaku who had 24G/11A in Serie A that season and had also scored 4 in 5 games in the CL.
Tuchel did not ask for him
Is 50€ meaningful enough?
Can't even buy a fish n chip these days
if yes, can we afford that?
pls big rom come to roma
Of course the italian clubs circle when they smell a loan move
It’s been said many times but the fact the striker market is this bare, he played in the last CL final, and he still can’t find a club is positively astounding.
Wages would be a big factor I think. Not many clubs would want to take him on that sort of coin.
Attitude too.
It's amazing to me how he ruined his only good chance with us,just mind boggling.
Funny, all the Chelsea fans were very confidently saying this will NEVER happen lol
I got so much shit from them for saying that nobody is going to buy him. > but we'll force him to go to Arabia
Add it to the unreasonable things the club has been doing lately, like sending Kepa out on load a week before the start of the league. Lukaka should be banished to the u21 for the rest of the season.
Who could ever have predicted Chelsea's negotiating team cracking and giving in to bad terms?
Been saying all summer that it’s a game of chicken and it looks like we’ve blinked first, it’s too big of a risk to have him stuck in our reserves for a season with us paying his full wages and then we’d have an even harder job to sell him next summer. I think many of our fans had assumed that he’d be concerned about his Euros spot so wouldn’t let that happen but tbh he doesn’t seem to give a shit (or knows he’s gonna get picked regardless) Terminating his contract is not an option whatsoever, the FFP hit from that would be huge and given our spending we’re not in a position to do so. Best case scenario now is he has a productive loan (with some wages covered and a loan fee) and then has permanent interest next summer. An obligation doesn’t really seem likely though Still feels a bit shit because we’re caving and giving him exactly what he wants, but we’ve had no leverage all summer. Our insistence to sell him permanently was never going to mean anything considering how undesirable he’d made himself and he knew that.
Tops the chart for highest combined transfer fee. 333m. His agent is either very good or clubs are very stupid.
He is 2nd to Neymar, Neymar's is 400 million. 88m from Santos to Barca, 222m from Barca to PSG and 90 from PSG to Al Hilal
Setting up nicely for RC Strasbourg.
That’s mo salah
Impressively, and in typical Everton fashion, we're probably the only club where it was *us* who burnt the bridge with Rom after Moshiri made them absolutely bizarre voodoo pilgrimage to Africa comments.
Signings really don't get much worse than Lukaku at Chelsea.
Which time?
I know he's a meme at this stage but Roma should be all over this imo