Claudius wrote:

Irish, you do realise that Gilles spent 6 years in Monaco as a player?

Shhhh let me dream

Bold Tone wrote:

@woolley
Yup. One of mourinho's strategies, at chelsea, was to use abramovich's money to block as many of wenger's prospective signings as possible.
He didn't need/want Lukaku but offered him silly money to stop us from signing him.

Micheal Essien come on down.

goon wrote:

Qwiss! wrote:

Who though? If Sanchez goes we are in desperate need of goal scorers.

Dunno, sign that kid from Monaco and a top wide man? Can't imagine it would cost much more than 70-80m

If there's no one else then do it, but feels like a massive waste of funds to me.

The main issue I have with Lukaku is that the main appeal other than his moderate goalscoring rate is that he's big, strong and quick but in reality he rarely uses those assets. Watch him and then watch how guys like Drogba and Cavani play the game, it's light night and day. He's much, much easier to defend against.

I'd have him in a heart beat.
He's still young, plays in a team that's not renowned for creating quality scoring opportunities,
his scoring rate for his age in 2nd to none,
and he's amongst the likes of Aguero in terms of number of games to reach his totals.
He's a much better complete forward under Koemans & probably uses his physical abilities better than Giroud.

goon wrote:

Qwiss! wrote:

Who though? If Sanchez goes we are in desperate need of goal scorers.

Dunno, sign that kid from Monaco and a top wide man? Can't imagine it would cost much more than 70-80m

If there's no one else then do it, but feels like a massive waste of funds to me.

The main issue I have with Lukaku is that the main appeal other than his moderate goalscoring rate is that he's big, strong and quick but in reality he rarely uses those assets. Watch him and then watch how guys like Drogba and Cavani play the game, it's light night and day. He's much, much easier to defend against.

Moderate goal scoring? He's got 19 league goals already this season. He's been a consistent scorer for a couple of years now and he's only 23. I think the claim that he doesn't use his pace and strength is wrong too. He uses them plenty, he may not be using his pace as much this season the way Koeman has them playing but he's used it a lot in previous seasons. He's quite adaptable and has variety in his play.

I just don't think you can get a sure thing striker like Lukaku for less than £60m these days.

LOL @ moderate goalscoring. People just look at Lukaku, assume he's an oaf and dismiss him. He will go for 60-70m pounds this summer. He's at worst the 4th best striker in the league, and has a long career ahead of him. I also just like his muscle. Imagine a frontline with him, Sanchez and Mbappe. Little bit more strength

Funny, since it seems like you just take a look at critics and assume that they're people who've just taken a look and never properly evaluated Lukaku.

His goal scoring rate over the last 3 years is about 1 in 2, which happens to be the same as a certain Mr Giroud. Yeah, he's got 19 goals now, it was 12 5 games ago, a goal spurt =/= prolific. He does have age on his side, but then how would he react to playing against deeper defences and also at the top level in the CL?

As for his pace and power. I just don't agree that he uses it anywhere near as well as he should but it's difficult to prove. I've seen countless games where he's been incredibly easy to defend against.

I don't care about his spurt. I care about his overall numbers. Seasons are rarely linear. It's funny how Lukaku constantly gets slammed for being less than what we might expect. He is still relatively young and can learn all the things people want.

Well I'm glad that's the case because his overall numbers are not prolific. And why is it funny to expect a lot from someone you want to spend £70m on?

I'd much rather spend that kind of money on Mbappe.

goon wrote:

His goal scoring rate over the last 3 years is about 1 in 2, which happens to be the same as a certain Mr Giroud. Yeah, he's got 19 goals now, it was 12 5 games ago, a goal spurt =/= prolific. He does have age on his side, but then how would he react to playing against deeper defences and also at the top level in the CL?

As for his pace and power. I just don't agree that he uses it anywhere near as well as he should but it's difficult to prove. I've seen countless games where he's been incredibly easy to defend against.

His hold up play, strength, shooting and heading all mean he's well equipped against deep defences IMO.

I don't know what having 12 goals 5 games ago is supposed to prove. All strikers go through streaks of form.

Hes already scored more than last season. He's a player on the up and at 23 he's only going to get better.

I'd definitely take Lukaku, stick Sanchez behind him and it'd be awesome. Proper pace and power.

Doesn't have penalties to pad his stats either.

goon wrote:

His goal scoring rate over the last 3 years is about 1 in 2, which happens to be the same as a certain Mr Giroud. Yeah, he's got 19 goals now, it was 12 5 games ago, a goal spurt =/= prolific. He does have age on his side, but then how would he react to playing against deeper defences and also at the top level in the CL?

As for his pace and power. I just don't agree that he uses it anywhere near as well as he should but it's difficult to prove. I've seen countless games where he's been incredibly easy to defend against.

The goal spurt theory is slightly absurd. Every striker goes through them. Just because these discussion is taking place 5 games after he had a spurt doesn't automatically mean he is not prolific anymore. Imagine discount Alexis just because he had a hattrick and brace in consecutive matches, I don't really agree with that.

Right now, Lukaku is the most consistent goalscorer in the league over the past couple of seasons not playing for a top side. Looking around Europe it's hard to find a proven goalscorer to join us even with 60m-70m, and that's probably why Lukaku might be worth it.

It's not absurd in the slightest, saying he's prolific after a good patch would be as absurd as me saying he doesn't score any goals after a poor patch, which may be what follows in the weeks to come. Who knows.

The point is, look at his overall record. This year, last year and the year before. It's good, but not amazing for a top level player, certainly not a £70m player. I repeat, his goals per game ratio matches that of Giroud and if I called him prolific I'd be laughed out of the forum.

Lastly, consistant =/= prolific.

goon wrote:

It's not absurd in the slightest, saying he's prolific after a good patch would be as absurd as me saying he doesn't score any goals after a poor patch, which may be what follows in the weeks to come. Who knows.

The point is, look at his overall record. This year, last year and the year before. It's good, but not amazing for a top level player, certainly not a £70m player. I repeat, his goals per game ratio matches that of Giroud and if I called him prolific I'd be laughed out of the forum.

Lastly, consistant =/= prolific.

So if this argument happened in December, are we going to say Alexis is not prolific because he only had 8 goals 2 matches before that? I can't really agree with that because unless you are Messi or Ronaldo your goalscoring won't be that consistent to the fact that there are no good and bad patches in your season.

Giroud has only outscored him in 1 season, for other 3 he's pretty far off and that's saying something considering he is playing for the team who probably creates the most chances in the league. Give Lukaku his service and everything will be different. He has much more upside than Giroud anyway in his overall game.

The prices are absurd nowadays anyway after the chinese market came in. Who else would you buy for 50-70m? It's really difficult.

With Goon on this, Lukaku does literally fuck all if he doesn't score so the comparison with Alexis is way off. Can't stand the little selfish prick, Kane/Sturridge levels of vanity and egotism on the pitch, talks way too much about himself off it too. For 60m I'd much rather Icardi who's shown that he can grow as a footballer too, while I'm confident in saying Lukaku will never amount to much more than he is right now

only place i could see him going is man u as a zlatan replacement. don think many other top clubs will be keen

jones wrote:

With Goon on this, Lukaku does literally fuck all if he doesn't score so the comparison with Alexis is way off. Can't stand the little selfish prick, Kane/Sturridge levels of vanity and egotism on the pitch, talks way too much about himself off it too. For 60m I'd much rather Icardi who's shown that he can grow as a footballer too, while I'm confident in saying Lukaku will never amount to much more than he is right now

That surprises me Jones as your previous posts had lead me to believe that you rated Lukaku highly.