At least Pogba was actually decent!Almost like buying a former youth product for a world record fee, getting nothing out of him for five years and then letting him go on a free back to the club from which he was purchased?
Romelu Lukaku | Chelsea
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
Worst signing of the season in terms of expectation, value and what was delivered?
Got to be up there
Got to be up there
Probably. Grealish has delivered about the same relative to his price, but he wasn't meant to the missing piece of the puzzle like Lukaku.
In a vacuum, absolutely. But we still finished the season where we were expected to by anyone sane. We were never in a million years going to win the title over City or Liverpool and most people predicted us to finish 3rd. So really, Lukaku being horrendous didn’t actually harm our season much.
He was also still our highest goal scorer in all comps. So while he vastly underperformed what we expected he wasn’t a complete and total embarrassment stats wise like Werner was for example.
I don't think there's any question about that, unfortunately.
The hope was his goals would push us up to the same level as City and Liverpool in the league, in fact we still finished 19 points behind City, same as the year before. Guess you can say we'd have finished 2nd on goal difference with our points and goals this year put in last years table. Getting 94 points to overall City this year was never happening for us even if Lukaku scored 10-20 more goals. City scored 23 more goals than us and conceded 7 fewer...
So we can console ourselves than him being rubbish largely didn't really matter anyway in terms of our league position...
We'll probably sell him back to Inter for about half what we paid, so hard to argue against being a pretty bad signing all things considered. Interesting to see who the new owners identify to replace with their analytics or whatever. Need at least 94 points next season win the title or even more I think.
So we can console ourselves than him being rubbish largely didn't really matter anyway in terms of our league position...
We'll probably sell him back to Inter for about half what we paid, so hard to argue against being a pretty bad signing all things considered. Interesting to see who the new owners identify to replace with their analytics or whatever. Need at least 94 points next season win the title or even more I think.
Secret agent Lukaku has done his job.
"Go to Chelsea Rom, remember how you played at United? Do that, then we will bring you back at the end of the season for half what we sold you for"
"OK boss, gotcha, fat Rom incoming, see ya in 12 months"
"Go to Chelsea Rom, remember how you played at United? Do that, then we will bring you back at the end of the season for half what we sold you for"
"OK boss, gotcha, fat Rom incoming, see ya in 12 months"
Inter really want him back. Chelsea are supposedly trying to get them to agree to a £17m loan fee now and £60m obligation to buy in 2023.
A deal like that I would snap their hands off and forget this disaster ever happened
Edit: here comes Bayern. Lukaku is in demand. Love to see it.
A deal like that I would snap their hands off and forget this disaster ever happened
Edit: here comes Bayern. Lukaku is in demand. Love to see it.
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Bayern would be a decent move for him. I read this morning if Rom goes, Darwin Nunez could be on the way in. I rate Gabriel Jesus and he is available, I'd take him in a heartbeat, just as i would Sterling
There is no way that Bayern is buying this oaf.
Bayern arn't signing Lukaku 
Forget those guys. I'd integrate Broja, have and him and Kai as the strikers and call it a day. Let's spend our resources this summer on other areas in the squad.
There is just an air of an insufferable arsehole around lukaku.
For all the hype he is just not that good
For all the hype he is just not that good
He should just stay away from the EPL, not good enough.
Don’t think Inter would pay that fee for a loan, no more than 3/5 million
Agreement between Lukaku and Inter, but they don’t want/can pay nothing.
So now it’s all on Lukaku to force the exit with something like refusing to train and play, he has to find the solution, it’s all on him now
So now it’s all on Lukaku to force the exit with something like refusing to train and play, he has to find the solution, it’s all on him now
I suspect there is still money outstanding for him. I expect that they'll get him on loan and some of the monies owed on the transfer fee will be forgiven. How much that will be is anyones guess.
May be a swap with Lautaro ?
Inter apparently want Lukaku back and are in pole position for Dybala. I suppose that does mean Martinez could be on the move. But I’m not sure if we’re interested in him.
Wouldn't be a decent move for Bayern though !
That seems extremely unlikely.
Inter are reportedly being forced to sell one of their prize jewels (Bastoni, Lautaro, Skriniar) this summer because they need to raise funds. Why would they give a bunch of that money back immediately in a massive loan fee, much less commit to give the rest of it back (and more) with an obligated buy for an aging striker on huge wages?
Marotta is a very savvy operator in the transfer market. My guess is that he will take Lukaku only if he can loan him for a year relatively cheaply, especially as this might smooth things out if they sell Lautaro.
Why would Chelsea do that though? A deal has to at least pretend to be somewhat amendable to both sides, even if one side is getting the better end of the deal. Stories out of Italy say Inter and Lukaku's people have been on contact and he's willing to take a 50% pay cut to go back there. If Inter are as unwilling as you say, then I doubt Lukaku goes anywhere.
Where is any logic in this? You payed him over 100 million and now you are giving him for free just to save money from his salary?
Next year at this time he will be 30. Inter surely will not buy him for 50-60 mil.
Similiar (not on this level of course) as our situation with AWB and Palace. You cut your losses and sell him for half price. Or use him
Next year at this time he will be 30. Inter surely will not buy him for 50-60 mil.
Similiar (not on this level of course) as our situation with AWB and Palace. You cut your losses and sell him for half price. Or use him
this is what Chelsea do though
Yes they do for younger players who they buy for 15-20 mil and then earn money on loans and in the end they sell that player or use him.
With Lukaku they will just lose 100 mil.
Bakayoko?
You really expect that club from Italy will pay that sum? They just throw those clauses for fun. Lazio accepted 30 mil clause for our Pereira, ffs.
It definitely might not make sense for Chelsea. But Inter might figure that Chelsea are a wealthy club that could be willing to do a relatively simple loan just to get him out of the side and remove the distraction, especially if they can save the wages. That's the basis of a lot of loan moves.
He was 22 or 23 when they bought him. But yeah, they payed him a lot. Still they have time to sell him (if he is under contract, not sure about that)
A 20 million loan fee would be almost exactly the amortized yearly payment amount we owe them. 60 million fee after that would cover the remainder of the amortized payments. It’s either being set up that way very intentionally, or sone reporters can do basic math after using google and are trying to look smart.
The money for the amortized payments was already paid on by Roman to the holding company he used to funnel “debt” to the club though. So unless that money is frozen from use by the club, idk that Chelsea need to clear anything to come even with Lukaku. It’s not like it’s being paid back to Abramovich, or like it came out of the operating budget of the club.
I wouldn’t expect them to get so much for Lukaku. But a lot of his contract, with both clubs, was tied up in “personal branding” from what I understand. So I wouldn’t expect sitting on the bench taking a check to be high on his list either.
The money for the amortized payments was already paid on by Roman to the holding company he used to funnel “debt” to the club though. So unless that money is frozen from use by the club, idk that Chelsea need to clear anything to come even with Lukaku. It’s not like it’s being paid back to Abramovich, or like it came out of the operating budget of the club.
I wouldn’t expect them to get so much for Lukaku. But a lot of his contract, with both clubs, was tied up in “personal branding” from what I understand. So I wouldn’t expect sitting on the bench taking a check to be high on his list either.
They still can't get Lukaku like player for them for that money. He played well for them and still they earned some 50 mn from that deal. So i don't think there is a problem for them.
As I said if they like the deal chelsea will be happy to accept the loss and move on. At least we can't keep player like him unhappy in the dressing room and both could move on. We learnt a hard lesson by kept Torres and try to make him the player he was.
More likely a loan with an option, not obligations
IF they refuse now to pay 10-15 mil thrn surely year later they will not spend 50 on 30y old striker. They have money issues, remember?
They also were the highest scoring team in Serie A, already have four strikers under contract for next year (Lautaro, Dzeko, Sanchez, Correa), and are reportedly in the running to sign Dybala on a free.
I think they'd look at Lukaku if the deal was great from their perspective but it seems highly unlikely they'd spend a lot of money on an area that isn't even a need given their financial problems.
Presumably they don't screw deals with chelsea. Deals won't be happened if they think it won't be worth to do. So we can see.
That would make zero sense for Chelsea. Don't think Inter would enter into negotiations with a pipedream that they can just have Lukaku back for basically nothing. Despite the disastrous season, he's still a good striker in his prime. If they can't afford him, they can't afford him. A £3m loan deal with no obligation only suits Inter. A deal with an obligation to buy to be paid over several installments would probably be the best deal they could hope for that Chelsea would actually agree to.
He played well for Conte though, who's no longer there. I think he won't be hitting same heights like he did before over there, just remains to be seen if he's going to be enough of a donkey for Inter to realize he ain't worth paying 60 mil for.
Well its upto inter to say how much he is worth. Chelsea are not here to push his rate up. They may rate him for 60 mn or go away from chelsea proposal.
He has plenty of suitors and atletico also enquired about him and rumour to be believed Bayern too.
He may not worth 100 mn what chelsea paid for but certainly worth 60 mn. That's what we expect for him any way. So moving him away not a big problem for us.
Madr zero sense why Chelsea brought him in the first place, so not sure why this is seemingly improbable.
So you think Chelsea will make a £97m mistake and then compound that mistake by practically giving him away for free 12 months later?