You may well disagree and that's totally fine, but I'm talking about what the situation really is. As I said elsewhere, we have 26 first team players and the PL allows only 25 to be registered. It's a fact that we need to sell right now and balance out the squad.
Lukaku - transfer speculation | Gone
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Selling our only out and out striker above 23 is not conducive to having a balanced squad. There's literally no other team in the league - potentially world, that have that.
Lukaku wants to leave because he won't be the undisputed number 1 choice under Ole. I'm sure the manager would love to keep him as an option but there is no point if he won't be giving 100% to fight for the team.
Also:
This registration argument makes me laugh.
As soon as Lukaku, Darmian, Rojo gets sold, we'll have space.
Time to trim the fat.
Poor excuse for not signing a replacement.
We need a replacement.
It is when you want to play a system of rotation?
Ole wants the front 3 to rotate, Martial, Rashford, James, Greenwood, Sanchez. All can play in 2/3 different front 3 positions. Having Lukaku restricts him to play his style.
There are other clubs who play without a out and out striker as well.
It's not an argument, it's a fact. What do you think I'm arguing exactly? It just is what it is. If we sell players in time, we may get new additions but it doesn't seem likely.
Reports from.Italy suggested that Conte threatened to resign as the players he was promised haven't arrived yet
In my defence, I completely forgot Sanchez existed...
Still, the Kristof Terreur tweet suggests we will replace him.
Ok so this one is done. So let's assume a few scenarios
1. He joins Inter which is most likely
2. He goes to Juve and we will get Dybala or Costa in exchange
If he goes to Inter I would say we need to replace him. Early reports were Ben Yedder, but that seems to be cold. However knowing Ed I wouldnt be surprised if we just pocketed that cash and went with Martial, Rashy, Linzy Sanchez and Greenwood. Would be a major mistake I think as both Martial and Rashy are inconsistent. Greenwood is raw and needs time to develop and the other two dont score at all
1. He joins Inter which is most likely
2. He goes to Juve and we will get Dybala or Costa in exchange
If he goes to Inter I would say we need to replace him. Early reports were Ben Yedder, but that seems to be cold. However knowing Ed I wouldnt be surprised if we just pocketed that cash and went with Martial, Rashy, Linzy Sanchez and Greenwood. Would be a major mistake I think as both Martial and Rashy are inconsistent. Greenwood is raw and needs time to develop and the other two dont score at all
Do you think we will? I have 0 faith, if we can barely get rid of Rojo, Darmian. It would be really disappointing if we sold Lukaku and Sanchez then didn't sign a forward.
IMO I wouldn't mind selling Lukaku and see what Sanchez and Greenwood do this year and get Sancho next.
It's unlike him to react emotionally.
He does not fit our style and it's as simple as that. He looked even worse under Ole's reign than he did under Jose.
There is no point in keeping a high value - high wages player on the bench that will chip in with 10 or so goals next season.
Move him on, bring someone in that will add fluidity to our game and, in turn, the goals will start flowing from other sources.
There is no point in keeping a high value - high wages player on the bench that will chip in with 10 or so goals next season.
Move him on, bring someone in that will add fluidity to our game and, in turn, the goals will start flowing from other sources.
Just accept 80m and move on. So tiresome. The issue with Lukaku is that we quite clearly wont start every game for us, so him sitting on the bench for a good chunk doesnt help anyone.
If Lukaku is here after the deadline then it's in his interest to adapt to Ole's style. With the Euro's coming up next summer he cant afford to be sat on our bench for the season. Unless his sale is dependant on getting Maguire I dont have a problem with him staying
How much did Inter want for Perisic again? Hold out for the 85m. I'd rather sell him to someone else in january for less.
We've held off and demanded good money for him and I think we've done well. It'd be mad to now turn around and reject the latest offer from Inter. He's unhappy, out of shape, doesn't fit our desired style, keeping him would be so pointless and I have to believe we'll sell him this week.
I reckon we'll do a quick deal for Ben Yedder, which I would be happy with.
I reckon we'll do a quick deal for Ben Yedder, which I would be happy with.
I see it differently. I think this might me dependent on Maguire. But even if it wasnt, i just want a guy on decent wages not suiting us and never being good enough for our current tactics depreciating in value. I also know what he offers and would like something/someone new, where you have hope that things can improve. I have seen enough of Lukaku here and am sick of it. Same for Darmian, Rojo, Bailly etc....if a club is interested and they wont be starters, and some not even in the matchday squad, whats the point? ship them out, they wont get more expensive and better by sitting in the stands or on the treatment table. We have been dumb overpaying for them and now want other clubs to be even dumber. I would try to milk 80m out of Inter and be done, instead of hoping for another 5 or 10m more.
Go Conte! Screw Inter
Early deadline? Early? Literally a week and a half left!
I'm not sure his value will depreciate that much even if he's on the bench for a season. Players who only have a year left on their contracts are still moving for huge fees, dont see why Belgium's all time record goal scorer would be any different?
I agree though if Maguire is dependant on Lukaku going then yeah take what we can get (within reason)
I find it strange when people say "how are we going to replace his 15 goals", as if we'll be playing with 10 men for the 3,000 minutes he played last season.
The ones we have left have never even scored 20 goals in a season,so you can see where the problem lies.
Yeah, supposedly it's Thursday.
Maybe that's because they barely played 50% of the total mins or they were shunted to wing rather than playing centrally.
It's not just his 15 goals though is it, it's that, plus we have to score more if we want to improve. You don't just lay that responsibility at someone who's never played in the prem and youth players - regardless of talent. It's not particularly fair pressure on them.
Good for him. Manager should always be backed or walk away. Oh wait...
Solskjaer is a Manchester United fan so he will never walk away just to protect his own career or ego.
Who? Juve's journos for sure….
If that's the case, no manager will complete even 1 month with the clubs. Every manager will miss out on targets.
No amount of training will stop him looking knackered after three runs or give him a better touch.
The ones we have left have never played the kind of minutes in a season that Lukaku enjoyed in his seasons scoring 20+ goals.
I believe Martial for example scored 12 in around 2200 minutes. There's no reason to think if he played another 2000 minutes that he wouldn't score 20+.
Likewise the stats show when played centrally Rashford has a similar scoring ratio as Lukaku. His stats are coloured by the fact that he's been shunted around to accommodate Lukaku. I'd imagine a full season at centre forward and you'd see 20+.
Not necessarily. If you believe that Lukaku's inability to press from the front causes us firstly to be under undue pressure and secondly reduces the chances of winning the ball back high up the potch... Then you'll also believe that a front three committed to pressing would decrease our goals against column and increase opportunities through forced errors. Add into that the purchase of Wan-Bissaka and possibly a CB. Note that Chelsea scored two goals less than us last season and finished third.
Obviously if we want to win the PL we need to score more, but that's got to be a 3 year plan. However if you look at Klopp's team they score far more than the sum of all parts because of the way they play.
Take Inter (Conte really) out of it, there is no one else right now that will be willing to pay us the amount we are currently refusing. We are gambling on the fact that Conte wants him badly enough to pay us what we want. But if Conte moves on from Lukaku, no one is gonna offer 70m, especially not a year after he has has been a bit part player.
Also, its annoying how we are letting this delay our other transfer plans.
May be Chelsea next season?
There’s literally no manager in world football anywhere who gets every player he wants.
True, but he did that with Mane with two seasons and who'd already scored 10, in the prem and Salah who had scored 10+ for two seasons in a row in Serie A. He also bought the CB last. I actually think Lukaku's inability to hold onto the ball was the real issue, the pressing has only become an issue as we've changed style. I do get the argument the new style SHOULD produce more opportunities, but it's quite a leap and a lot of faith. I'm also not saying us improving = league title challenge, we need to leapfrog 2 teams this season. That's the baseline goal, which requires a big improvement.
But there are managers who are happy with the squad... if Citi or Liverpool doesn’t buy, they both still have an excellent balanced squad, whereas we are in a different position.
The poster in question was commenting on Conte possibly resigning from Inter if his transfer demands aren’t met.
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