Romelu Lukaku | United confirm deal subject to medical and personal terms

How do you feel about the imminent signing of Romelu Lukaku?

  • Muppetastic!

    Votes: 456 20.6%

  • Happy enough

    Votes: 1,222 55.2%

  • Ambivalent

    Votes: 370 16.7%

  • Disappointed

    Votes: 112 5.1%

  • Oh please god no!

    Votes: 54 2.4%
  • Total voters
    2,214
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Pass and Move said:
Even if this happens, and not just because of footballing similarities, it doesn't make the person seeing those similarities racist.
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There are degrees of racism though aren't there? Making quick, lazy assumptions based on skin colour isn't the same as abusing someone in the street, but it's still unpleasant. And recognising that you do it (not you personally) is an opportunity to right a wrong. No matter how comparitively trivial it might appear.
 
Love the fact the plastics tried a last gasp attempt to sign him only to be laughed off.

Did they not see he was hanging with Pogba all week? Was only going to be one outcome once the news broke we bid.
 
The price is just so hilarious to me for some reason, just doesn't make sense. Things have truly gone bonkers :lol:
 
notcool said:
The comparison to Drogba comes about because they both played for Chelsea.

The comparison to Heskey comes about because Heskey was considered technically unsound too.

Not racism.
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Factually incorrect. He was called the new Drogba before Chelsea had bought him...for very little reason beyond race and physique. There are undoubtedly other, much smaller factors, mostly driven by an inaccurate assessment of both players' skillsets, but the primary reason is really quite obvious when you look at any number of similar comparisons which would be laughed out of the room if you're talking about a different race.

GM K said:
That was rare back then. Remember that Drogba was very much criticized in his first season particularly when his performances were analyzed within the context of his price tag. He fell short of expectations. He dived when no one touched him, held on to the ball and tried to score himself when passing was better etc. I could go on and on. He was 26 then, remember? His highest goal tally in France with Marseille a year earlier before he moved to England was 19 when he ended the season as the third highest goal scorer. In his first season at Chelsea, he scored only 16 goals in 40 games.

Drogba was great but people need to remember how he evolved. He got better with time. I remember he was clumsy with the ball when attempting to dribble early in his career at Chelsea but he improved d on it significantly. He was also not known as a dangerous free kick specialist until later. He worked hard on it until he became one of the best.

The one thing Drogba always had was his affinity for the big stage. He was tailor made for it. That is what put him in a totally different class from most others. And it's the one thing I wonder of Lukaku can ever match. But Lukaku is still 24. He can improve. We'll see how well he does so.
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I agree that Drogba was a bit of a donkey to begin with. You only need to watch his first touch against us - it doesn't get much worse than this! It's yet more evidence why people's rigid views on the importance of a players' first touch, and the inability to improve it over time, are somewhat misguided. That said, you're talking about something completely different here.

What I was talking about was what has always, always set Lukaku and Drogba apart. Lukaku is a goalscorer. Drogba, for the most part, wasn't. Regardless of whether you look at his clumsy early years or his prolific peak years, he was always a provider. Lukaku can afford not to be because he has consistently scored goals.

When Drogba wasn't scoring goals, why do you think he was in the team? Sure, he frequently scored important goals in big games, but why bother playing him in the small games if he didn't score? The answer is simple: his all-round contribution. He was a total wimp and a bit of a knob but he was a selfless player from the off. Just look at his vital, if simple, contribution to that seminal Lampard goal to win the title. It happened throughout the season. He was there laying the ball off for midfield runners, playing other forwards in and generally doing lots of selfless, unappreciated work. As for him learning to score free kicks late...I think he'd disagree.

That simply isn't who Lukaku is. He might start to develop that way and build his all-round game to complement his core qualities, but that's the opposite to what Drogba did. The comparison is just silly.
 
That is amazing from the Beeb. Not only was the incident last week, their own article reads that he wasn't arrested.

The state of journalism in the UK.
 
GM K said:
Ermm, if you are one of the top three marksmen in arguably the best league in the world; you are the top striker for a top 10 ranked football nation in world football (Belgium) and you have just been signed by Manchester United, surely, you have to be 'world class'.
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Everyone has different kind of assessment on this term. This is my own IMO: world class means a player show great influence the game just make impact with the score. If you go only on number then Anelka, Darren Bent, Andrew Johnson, Berbatov... would have been world class in a season since they get into top marksmen in PL at one time. Someone like Drogba had trouble to get over 12 league goals for majority of his Chelsea career yet, he's a big player.

When people talk about Lukaku in big games, they don't talk about him not scoring vs top 5 teams. Some games like semi final vs Southampton in league cup is big game for L'pool, & the same Southampton was big game for us in the League Cup final for example. Lukaku did kind of bottle it in important games over the past few years. He can score goal, but he can go missing too. That's what he needs to improve. He is young so we never know.

Just to make it clear. I am not against his signing. We clearly need to a goal scorer. Again everybody have their own opinion. I share same view with some other poster that doubting Lukaku being world class & we still need that big game player. I hope I am wrong. I don't doubt Lukaku being a natural goal scorer. He just needs to improve his game so he's unstoppable for many game, especially big game thus becoming world class. At the moment he can be fairly easily marked out of game.
 
Up to £90 million including add ons! Christ, this had better work. He did brilliantly last season, but I never thought he'd go for that kind of money. I'm not sure what to think at the moment; it's a shock.
 
Agent Pogba, i didnt quite realise they were that close of friends? how did that actually come about considering one is belgium and one is French?
 
Precaution said:
Agent Pogba, i didnt quite realise they were that close of friends? how did that actually come about considering one is belgium and one is French?
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Because, despite the notorious hatred between the French and Belgians, they met and got on with each other?
 
Member 5225 said:
He's due in LA court in October...what!
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He'll just pay the fine. It's the equivalent of a speeding ticket in USA. Don't want to pay fine or wish to have fine lowered? Go to court and plead innocent or to the mercy of the court. Judge will lower fine plus court costs. In this case he pays fine which is same as pleading guilty. No big deal.
 
To be fair you can imagine Pogba and Lukaku making a lot of noise on holiday.
 
All round to Rom's house this Halloween.
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Is the deal really £75M + £15M add-on for the cash?
I hope it's £75M total including add-on and Rooney :(
 
Seveneric said:
The price is just so hilarious to me for some reason, just doesn't make sense. Things have truly gone bonkers :lol:
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Weird, for me it's the opposite. With current prices, I think 75m for one of the top 3 PL CFs proven over 4 years, and still just 24, is a really decent price.

Stones - 50m
Sterling 50m - 2 seasons ago
ADM - 60m
Pogba - 90m

Rom at 75m is fecking decent.
 
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