There are a few strikers we should inquire about their availability for first, but Lukaku should certainly be quite high up on a shortlist. He would be a massive upgrade on Giroud, and he is only going to get better too.

Irish gunner wrote:

Balo or Lukaku?

Think I'd prefer Lukaku tbh.

Definitely. No contest.

Lukaku is improving every season and if Chelsea are selling it is because the player wants to play and Chelsea aren't going to develop him.

Deigo Costa didn't become a 35 goal a season player overnight and I think Lukaku is the better player, he can become a hugely important player for any top 4 team.

We aren't going to get a top tier striker and this is the guy who is:

A) Better than what we have right now

B) Going to improve next year

C) Likely continue to improve as he ages (As with all target strikers)

Balotelli is the better, more talented player by an absolute country mile. He would also probably be the bigger gamble though. 🙂

We are going to be paying for potential, but the fee certainly is going to be for a ready made player, similar to Draxler.

Balotelli would be the better signing all round.

Balotelli has about a 10% chance of becoming a top player. Same with Ben Arfa. Lukaku about 60%.

Sell Giroud, sign Lukaku and Morata. Problem solved.

Balotelli's goalscoring has never been consistent. His temperament and attitude is ten times as bad to manage as Suarez. No point.

Good thing about Lukaku is, he always makes the difference (be it with a goal or assist) when his side is drawing a match. His all-round game isn't up to the standard required of a top striker, but he's still very young and will likely improve. He's already a good striker though, and is going to be amongst the best strikers in the league IMO. However, I'm not yet sure he'll develop into an elite striker. I dunno, maybe I'm spoilt, but I'd like to see a (potential) top 5 striker leading the line for us again.

Balotelli's different, he is an elite talent IMO, there's no doubt in my mind he'll develop into an elite striker if he fulfils his talent. There are huge question marks about his attitude and application though, spending huge sums of money on him is a very big risk. Would I take the risk? Yes, unless we have a realistic chance of signing Costa or Cavani (don't rate him as much as most people do, but he's still a top striker).

The appealing thing about Balotelli despite the huge risks involved is, he's a set piece specialist and we desperately need one. Not only is he very dangerous from direct free-kicks, his delivery from corners or indirect free kicks is top quality. His delivery from set pieces was crucial to Inter winning the league when he 1st burst on to the scene at 17/18.

I'd rather not sign a player who only looks interested about half the time no matter how good his set pieces are.

Tactics wrote:

Good thing about Lukaku is, he always makes the difference (be it with a goal or assist) when his side is drawing a match. His all-round game isn't up to the standard required of a top striker, but he's still very young and will likely improve. He's already a good striker though, and is going to be amongst the best strikers in the league IMO. However, I'm not yet sure he'll develop into an elite striker. I dunno, maybe I'm spoilt, but I'd like to see a (potential) top 5 striker leading the line for us again.

Balotelli's different, he is an elite talent IMO, there's no doubt in my mind he'll develop into an elite striker if he fulfils his talent. There are huge question marks about his attitude and application though, spending huge sums of money on him is a very big risk. Would I take the risk? Yes, unless we have a realistic chance of signing Costa or Cavani (don't rate him as much as most people do, but he's still a top striker).

The appealing thing about Balotelli despite the huge risks involved is, he's a set piece specialist and we desperately need one. Not only is he very dangerous from direct free-kicks, his delivery from corners or indirect free kicks is top quality. His delivery from set pieces was crucial to Inter winning the league when he 1st burst on to the scene at 17/18.

Balotelli will never be a top striker because he has failed to grasp the work that goes into evey top
Player. Was Henry, bergkamp, c. Ronaldo, zidane, or any or he too player so exceptionally talented that try could put in the work in training? Mario has issues with his ego thinking simply turning up is food enough. That is why he will always be a player that should by all respects be one of the best in the world, but in reality is a level below. By the time he gets his head sorted he will be yesterday's news and will have missed the boat so
I would say no to him straight up.

Also, lukaku has a better strike rate that Mario and has shown improvement in his game. Balitelli to me looks worse than his breakout season at inter, slight exaggeration but hasn't leaped on as was thought. Can't expect much when you have zero application to the element of your job thy improves your ability to perform when needed.

Jed wrote:

Utd will put the "You can't sign top players without CL" myth to bed this summer.

Bet they don't. Nobody has ever said that anyway.

Yeah, I have no doubt Man U will spend quite heavily this summer, but if Moyes decides to go after Fabregases again this summer, then I think he will have no better luck than last summer. For instance, I don't think Kroos will go there in a million years. Carvalho on the other hand is more probable since it will be a step up for him despite the lack of CL.

They've offered Ozil's sub in the NT a quarter mill a week. Crazy.

How much time does Kroos have left on his contract? The 250k is just a rumor too, right? Anyway, I don't think Kroos will go there anyway since the sporting side of it is just too much of a downgrade.

Kroos will absolutely leave if Bayern allow it.

That may be true, but I don't think he will sign for Man U. If he leaves, we should be all over that. I wouldn't mind at all a striker who is a level below top class for a season if we got Kroos instead. First of all, he can play the box to box role Ramsey plays to a level as good as Ramsey, but he is also excellent in a deeper, more restricted role. That is not taking into account that his best position is arguably behind the striker... This is the kind of player we should go all out to sign if he becomes available IMO.

I think he'll sign for United. Rumour has it in Germany that he has already told Bayern he wants to go there, but they don't want to gut their squad.

Ramsey/Kroos/Özil with Wilshere able to come in would sort our midfield out for 5 years.

I don't think Kroos is good enough defensively to last a full season in that position. Might as well put Wilshere there in that case. He's not good enough either but he has a much higher ceiling as a player.