CAS confirms we have not asked for a stay/freeze and have to do so in writing to get one. Still don't get why we won't. CAS is usually a bit more reasonable, doubt they would both deny a freeze AND add an extra window. And if we get freeze and lose a third window it will be winter 2021, and winters have seldom been good to us anyway. And right now we desperately need a goalscoring striker and attacker, goal-scorers period, a couple in hand better than hoping for some next summer. But then maybe the Club has/is trying and does not want to try for freeze unless we are sure the players we want and worth it are available, so who knows. But if Roman can become a billionaire as a Russian Jewish orphan selling rubber ducks out of a Siberian apartment, surely he can convince Pepe and Icardi, who have shown some interest in us in past, que no?
Maybe he just doesn't want to spend the money anymore? Maybe he wants to sell the club? Maybe we will buy players and loan them back until we can register them? The likes of Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona have appealed transfer bans in the past to CAS with varying degrees of success as Real had their ban reduced but Atleti and Barca failed.
Yes it is The Sun but based on a published list from CAS so perhaps... our case will not be heard before the window closes, which fits with the usual 2-9 months for a decision https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/9280864/chelsea-to-serve-transfer-ban-this-summer/ which goes again to my beating a dead horse whytf are we not trying for a stay/freeze
Lukaku mostly gone to Inter. Funny the 2 most expensive strikers moved the same year and both were disasters.
lol. Look up United fans in forums who are ecstatic that he is leaving. Completely unfounded, comedy it is.
I just went thru a couple pages and am missing whatever it is you're talking about. So, do you want to do yourself a favor and speak for yourself? I know it's tough If you're still daft enough to think one bleh season under Mourinho (is your memory that short?) makes him a "disaster," don't bother replying. It's funny to see how much damage got done to Lukaku's reputation once Jose v2 labeled him as not good enough. League goals, age, national team performances, etc. don't count but your opinion, based off of.. nothing.. does.
Lukaku is a striker that's perfect for a good team like Everton but not a great team. His numbers for United are dismal compared to his best season at Everton. He's only had one season where his numbers look remarkable, his other seasons, not so much.
He will do very good for Conte. He’s a striker that’s great on the counter and that’s a Conte special. He didn’t do as well at Man U because Mou tried to run everything through him and that’s not his game. I do think he will continue to struggle against the best of clubs tho. He’s a very good but not great player.
THis is effing scary LA Liga using peoples phones unbeknownst to them to spy for pirated tv, so egregious we will probably get banned another transfer window and Real will get a 2 billion waiver from FFP https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...howing-games-illegally-accessing-smartphones/
Super agent Mino Raiola has had a three-month worldwide ban from football activity suspended by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) after he filed an appeal.
In the aftermath of the Hazard transfer there was stat about who had the most goals+assists in the PL over Hazard's PL period. First on that list was Aguero. Second was Lukaku. I don't think the point of that was to compare him to Aguero and Hazard but it does suggest that he might be a bit underrated.
It's a mentality etched into certain fans from when Jose convinced everyone he wasn't good enough or had some mystical attitude problem. It's a psychological effect from previous martyr-ism of Mourinho that some can't seem to recover from. Examples include KDB-denialism, thinking Salah was a one season wonder last year (loooool), a sudden, completely illogical devaluation of Juan Mata, etc.
To pose a hypothetical, do you think we would have won the league with Lukaku leading the line under Jose or Conte instead of Costa? He isn't great at hold up play, has an incredibly poor first touch, and struggles heavily against good sides. Lukaku is great in the right system but in a possession side like us? Not so much.
I'm not arguing he's terrible, but a couple of years ago I argued that I've seen nothing that makes me want him back at Chelsea. He's good for above average sides, but for a side like Chelsea or Pool he's not good enough.
A slightly above average player who can boast some elite statistics. Not even his biggest fans would argue he is the second coming of Robin Van Persie, but within his limitations he is very good. I say this as a Club Brugge fan who at one point hated this Mauve Bastard. I still don't like him (he still hasn't given up his Calimero act in spite of the fact that almost everyone now rates him over here) but I have to respect his output for Belgium, especially under Bobby Martinez.
As I said, he's a good striker for a side like Everton, but not for a top side. His output for Belgium is against sides like Tunisa and Panama, teams any striker worth their salt should be scoring against. The one season where he put up elite striker numbers skews things in his favor. Lukaku is what he is, and that's a striker who is good, but not great. He also has weaknesses that you don't want in a striker, most notably, a poor first touch. Along with struggling against packed defenses.
Can you explain what that means? Doing well padded his stats? Oh really? 35 assists in 252 PL appearances and people really want to harp on his touch? It's overstated how poor it is. As for the "would we have won the league" with him leading the line question.. who's to say? Costa was not perfect and clearly a short term solution. I would have absolutely favored keeping Lukaku and favoring as it immediately gets rid of the subsequent issues we had with Diego, Alvaro, and now our striker issue in general. But hey, if you like expensive imports that then throw absolute bitchfits once they get to London over proven 26 y/o PL talent, suit yourself.
interesting. Interesting stats. But we all know that Harry Kane is a much better striker than Lukaku and Hazard and Aguero are in a different class altogether. Stats don't tell you everything eh? That said in hindsight I wish we had bought Lukaku back than bought that arse hole Moratta. At the time i thought Moratta was the better player - I was wrong about that.
So why has no other striker scored at comparable numbers to him when we faced those sides? FWIW, the countries he has scored against and the amount of goals scored against them: Bosnia & Herzegovina: 1 Costa Rica: 2 Croatia: 2 Cyprus: 3 Egypt: 1 Estonia: 2 Finland: 1 Gibraltar: 3 Greece: 2 Iceland: 3 Japan: 1 Kazakhstan: 1 Luxembourg: 3 Mexico: 2 Netherlands: 1 Norway: 1 Panama: 2 Portugal: 1 Republic of Ireland: 2 Russia: 2 Saudi Arabia: 2 Scotland: 3 Sweden: 1 Switzerland: 3 Tunisia: 2 United States: 1 Ten of the goals above were against top twenty countries (based on the current rankings). Of course, I'd like to see the magical striker (of those who have a significant amount of goals) who hasn't scored the bulk of his (or her) goals against smaller nations. The very set-up of qualifying games means that most of the countries he will face during those will be "small countries". Same for some of the group game opponents at the actual tournaments. So we are judging this entirely on how a striker does at tournament knock-out stages every two years. That is a very small sample size.
I'm hardly even claiming Lukaku is elite either.. just serially, unfairly underrated by many despite all evidence contradicting such thinking. I'd gladly have kept a guy capable of 20+ goals a season and wanted to be here over continuing the very frustrating striker merry-go-round.
i think the hard thing with Lukaku is that if we'd kept him or brought him back a little quicker and his price didn't inflate, it would all seem a little more right sized. i'm just not sure he's the elite striker his price was trying to dictate. so when you are looking at the money involved you expect to get a striker that is not only pushing golden boot but at critical times. it's not all his fault in that way. he'd be a very good striker to have, but if you are looking to win titles, you are always wanting the absolute best.