Lukaku?
This topic contains 21 replies, has 9 voices, and was last updated by aindro 7 years ago.
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March 16, 2017 at 12:03 pm #1451464
Seemingly with his contract due to run out in 2 years Lukaku is looking to turn down a big new contract from Everton in favour of joining a CL club who regularly compete for trophies.
Everton if they want to realise Lukaku’s maximum value will need to sell him this summer and Lukaku well knows that.
The question is should Chelsea go all out to try and sign Lukaku this summer?
I would say only if Costa leaves and we get a significant fee for him and only if we can do a half sensible deal with Everton who have proved notoriously difficult to negotiate with previously.
If Costa does go then imo Lukaku is probably the nearest like for like replacement and assuming Conte doesn’t want to change the team dramatically tactically then probably the best option
What’s a half sensible deal?
Personally I’m very uneasy about paying circa £50m more for Lukaku than we sold him to Everton for and I think Everton will be looking for circa £75m for him I certainly wouldn’t want us to go above that.
What we can’t afford to do is agree to let Costa move and then get tied up in another negotiating shenanigan with Everton only to find that the back up targets to Lukaku are no longer available.
If Costa signs a new Chelsea deal early on in the summer and currently that’s still a big if them imo there’s no point in trying to sign Lukaku imo.
March 16, 2017 at 2:17 pm #1451558999… If the back up target is Morata then he might well come in cheaper than Lukaku. Im a fan of the belgian, but not for 75 million. If there are clubs willing to spend that or more, ie they get involved in a bidding war, i’d prefer the club watch on from the sidelines. Young and dynamic but for 75 million quid, you really want a ready made world beater like suarez or Neymar. The other factor in this is that Everton do not need to sell, they have a very wealthy owner. They could hang onto the player and run down his contract on the belief that Everton can get into a top 4 position within the next two years. Given Lukaku’s goals, hanging onto Koeman, who has done a very good job, that could be a distinct possibility.
Out of the clubs who can sign him, only us, City and United and Arsenal are top four clubs and even then united, Arsenal and Liverpool with spurs make top four finishes difficult. Lukaku might opt for a real madrid, PSG or even Italian switch if he wants guaranteed CL football.. But 75 million for a guy we sold for 35 seems violently excessive even in today’s markets.
If we sign Morata, Real could go for Lukaku as a replacement and so the dance of top strikers takes place around Europe. As a cheaper option, I could well see us make a move for Cavani… I’d argue he’s a like for like with Costa should we choose to sell him or he agitates for a China switch.
Lukaku might be stalling for a bumper pay day as well… Too many if’s and buts for my liking with this story.
March 16, 2017 at 2:21 pm #1451562I’m not Costa’s biggest fan. I can appreciate him but he is very overrated in my opinion. If he scores you know he will only get 1 and no more and sometimes we need our Striker to get more and he gets ball stuck under his feet a lot and he slow to release the ball when he has it.
Hasselbaink was much better than him. Thats the kind of striker I want in my team one that get goals from everywhere and can get multiple given the littlest of chances in any given game.
Id cash in Costa and spend the money on Lukaku without thinking. Costa has been terrible since the China story he is offering nothing to this team at present.
March 16, 2017 at 3:13 pm #1451600Perfect summing up Bort.
March 16, 2017 at 4:04 pm #1451639totally agree with Borts summing up and may I add he has become increasingly selfish when he could often pass the ball to a fellow player in a better scoring position or simply just pass the ball anyway.
March 16, 2017 at 4:17 pm #1451645Have to admit that Costa has gone of the boil. I have always preferred to buy from within the EPL if at all possible as they know the game and what is expected and normally less time to settle in
Cannot say I like Lukaku’s attitude as every year at Everton it evolves around his “supposed” transfer saga but he has made it clear he wants CL football. He has proven over the last couple of years he is more than capable domestically. Still not convinced about him at international level so would have doubts regarding the CL…?
Overall if we decided to go for Lukaku it should only be if Costa leaves. Then I think we have to have an open cheque book and very strong negotiater at the table. Everton will want as much as they can get but in one respect we are fortunate. Don’t think City would be looking at him as they have Jesus and Aguero. ManU and Arsenal could both miss out on CL football. Liverpool will miss out but don’t think they could even meet the fee let alone the salary anyway. Only spurs might want him but as they Kane I think we would be the front runners and we know (or believe) that Lukaku has an affinity for Chelsea so the only stumbling block would be Everton themselves
I would rather pay and get it done so he joins the squad rather then drag negotiations out over a period of months..? KTBFFH
March 16, 2017 at 5:52 pm #1451686Agree 1905,
Chelsea should just pay up and get the business done as early as possible. We were far too slow again last summer. Had we been involved in Europe we would have found it far more difficult to bed in the late coming players.
March 16, 2017 at 7:36 pm #1451725Put it this way
If manure wanted him then Everton would be prepared to do business
But Chelsea, I can see nothing but Everton refusing him to leave for us, can only see another long drawn out saga if it goes until the late summer
If it’s true, club need to go in now, make the bid, a proper bid and see it done early, then prepare for the Costa departure.March 16, 2017 at 8:32 pm #1451739Should we decide to cut our losses to off-load Costa and get someone else in I can see history repeating itself if we went for Lukaku.It will be another time wasting tactics and Everton playing us for wallies all over again.If Conte decides Lukaku is the man we want when do we start the pursuit to make sure the saga doesn’t impinge on our preparations for the new season.Also what figure do we use to start the bidding…we got strung along like a donkey with a carrot the last time making a series of bids hoping that the last bid would be the one to get Everton to do business but it didn’t,I think we went all the way up to £80M (way way over our valuation of the player!) before we got the message and abandoned the pursuit.I really believe we should clarify the situation with Costa now and if there’s going to be a parting of the ways we can start our search and decide on the replacement early to avoid being held to ransom during the stampede of late summer before the season starts.
March 16, 2017 at 8:58 pm #1451756If we get silly money from the Chinese for Costa, say 110m…apparently we turned down 90m in January, then I wouldn’t feel so bad in forking out 70m for Lukaku. I reckon he’d thrive under Conte as our main striker. His work ethic would definitely improve.
March 17, 2017 at 2:45 am #1451835I have different opinion. For me Costa is better suited to our style than Lukaku. He is tougher and can hold the ball, he works so hard, he is our first defender. I can only see Chelsea buying Lukaku if Costa leaves. And I hope that Costa will stay, as well as Courtois and Hazard.
Still, I like Lukaku but he will not come to Chelsea as a second choice. And Lukaku won’t come cheap for sure. I would prefer Costa to stay and buy another striker as his backup.March 17, 2017 at 7:54 am #1451865Everton do have a wealthy owner albeit that Moshiri is only the majority shareholder with 49.9 % of the shares but a wealthy owner doesn’t help Everton in this situation Chelsea have a wealthy owner too but if Costa or Courtois won’t commit themselves past the two years they have left on their contracts this summef Chelsea FC couldn’t afford to let two such valuable assets run their contracts down and for the club to lose circa £100m/£150m of it’s assets and neither could Everton afford to let Lukaku’s probable £75m value diminish to nothing either.
I thought it was interesting to hear Koeman talking about loyalty to contracts yesterday when he himself wasn’t loyal to his own contract at Southampton but I suspect that is a sign of just how difficult it will be to prise Lukaku from Everton’s grasp and we can ill afford to get into another Stones situation.
I share all of the concerns highlighted in 1905’s post of yesterday @ 4:17pm inc his concerns about Lukaku’s attitude however if Costa does go to China for silly money which would be his choice Lukaku is probably the best replacement possible but he’s not an option imo if Costa stays.
If we do move for Lukaku it needs to be done and dusted before the season ends and if we can’t reach a sensible agreement with Everton by then we should forget all about Lukaku and move on to our other targets.
March 17, 2017 at 9:57 am #1451936Personally I am from convinced that Lukaku would want to play for Jose again and we will have to wait and see if they qualify for the CL as that is far from a given based on last nights performance
If, and I stress if, we really want Lukaku then we go in with the money and get the deal done. It is no ones interest to prolong the saga (again).KTBFFH
March 17, 2017 at 11:27 am #1452016United are apparently now seriously looking into Lukaku and being a glory hunter type he will probably end up there.
March 17, 2017 at 3:12 pm #1452203I would not spend too much for Lukaku if Costa stays and signs an extension. But if Costa decides to go to China and with an ‘amazing’ fee, then surely we should go for Lukaku. And as posters said: if we want him, better be quick. We really have bad history with Everton, over Stones for example.
March 17, 2017 at 4:12 pm #1452242notnice…Lukaku wants CL football. Utd are by no means guaranteed this yet. If Conte really wants him we will have the inside track in my opinion.
March 18, 2017 at 8:56 pm #1452788Stuilse: I read last week that Conte wanted more control on transfers as condition for his contract extension. So we shall see if Conte really wants Lukaku or not.
Myself I think Costa is better than Lukaku for us. But Lukaku keeps scoring for free lately.March 20, 2017 at 2:14 pm #1453656Aindro – did you see/hear Conte’s pre match interview when questioned about more control. he simply stated that the story was not true and that if he wants a player then he speaks to the board and together they try to come up with a solution
Bearing in mind we could replace our team 5 times over based on the number of so called rumours thats a lot of discussion…!!
At the weekend it was reported that Lukaku has a clause which gives him the final say on where he moves to and that Drogs is speaking with him to try and get him to come to the Bridge – which if many of the previous stories are true is something that Lukaku would prefer..? KTBFFH
March 20, 2017 at 5:09 pm #1453737Costa was strong and battling and had a decent game in the end against Stoke but he still is not scoring when we need him too he’s like a gun loaded with no bullets at the moment: scary and menacing but then you relise there is no threat.
Meanwhile Lukaku takes almost all the chances given to him.
March 20, 2017 at 5:33 pm #1453744I have to admit that while Lukaku seems to be in rich vein of form there is still something about him that does not sit right with me
Not sure if it is his yearly annual contract wrangles or he wants to leave for a bigger club or what…?
For circa 70m I would want to be totally sure that he was committed as I feel that Conte could take him to a new level which I think he requires for CL football anyway. Just seems like a big gamble…KTBFFH
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