generally torn on the Lukaku deal I wanted him to have his chance here with the inept Torres, bad kneed and off form Ba and yet to play in the Premiership Eto'o but if he was not going to get valuable minutes then it made sense to get him to a club where he can play regularly and the three huge advantages with Everton are 1. He gets to stay in the Premiership and gain further experience against defences he may/should be facing in his future. 2. He is playing for a side where he should be able to compete for a regular starting role (I know he should be doing that with us but the milk has been spilled). 3. By staying in England (albeit on loan again) I believe he may fit in the homegrown qualification.
Bild is reporting that Wolfsburg are already planning a winter bid for Lukaku. I'm not sure what/if any the impact of the loan will have, just thought I'd share it.
1. Torres vs. Lukaku at the moment is basically an even trade. Lukaku is obviously vastly more promising, but he's not there yet and need lots of time. He won't get that here because we want to win. Eto'o was brought in, Torres can't be sold and Ba is already going to play third fiddle. Let's also not fool ourselves in thinking that Torres is utterly useless - he's not. He did pretty well against Bayern, for instance (while Lukaku generally failed to be useful as our counterattacking outlet), scored a nice goal. The notion that he's completely useless is frustration with what he used to be, not an assessment of how well he plays now. No, he's not good enough for us, but neither is Lukaku right now, and one can't be moved. 2. No premier league loans for McEachran/Josh isn't a bad thing. Josh struggled to really impress for Boro while Chalobah is still very young. They'd be sitting on benches - what would be the point? Everyone overrates their youth players, and we're probably no different.
Trying not to let the Lukaku ire cloud my judgment and overall grade for the window and looking at what I believe were our biggest needs and how we decided to fill/not fill those areas was a combination of joy and frustration. Personally I think we needed to caddress the following areas F- we added an experienced player in Eto'o and I think if we would have held onto Lukaku and loaned Ba then I would have been much happier. It seemed clear to me that we were not shipping Torres unless he forced the move to begin with and I fear we may be having a similar discussion next season. Schurrle may also be a useful option in terms of depth. The additions of Izzy Brown and Stipe Perica will hopefully be useful additions for the future. CM- adding Van Ginkel seems a nice addition as he appears to be a player who can play either the box to box role and/or the defensive/holding role. He is a talented technical player and has good size and hopefully he will settle into the side quickly. Essien returning on loan is additional, albeit unnecessary depth, in that area as well. It appears we dodged an expensive move with Fellaini despite the arguments for and against his addition but I do wonder if we could have added a player in this role with the investment we put up for Willian who atm seems more of a luxury than a necessity. Reserve GK- we made a couple of bids on other keepers and landed with Schwarzer which is not all that bad. Still would have loved Ruddy, who wanted to join, but the move was stopped by a high price tag. Given still may have been a wise move being that he is homegrown. CD- we have Kalas and Omerou (both remaining on due to injury atm) and should give us some talented and versatile depth at CD and RB as needed. LB- we kept hold of Bertrand and loaned out PVA again. How we proceed will depend on the form of Ash which includes any potential bids for Luke Shaw. Players In Andre Schurrle (18 mil), Marco Van Ginkel (9 mil), Mark Schwarzer (free), Willian (32 mil), Samuel Eto'o (free), Christian Atsu (3.5 mil), Cristian Cuevas (3 mil), Stipe Perica (undisclosed), Izzy Brown (undisclosed) Players Out Paulo Ferreira (retired), Florent Malouda (free), Ross Turnbull (free), Yossi Benayoun (released), Jeffrey Bruma (5 million Euros plus buy back clause), Amin Affane (free), Jesse Starkey (free), Archange Nkumu (free), Aziz Deen Conteh (free) Players Loaned Thibault Courtious (Athletico Madrid), Patrick Van Aaholt (Vitesse), Gael Kakuta (Vitesse), Cristian Cuevas (Vitesse), Lucas Piazon (Vitesse), Christian Atsu (Vitesse), Sam Hutchinson (Vitesse), Oriol Romeu (Valencia), Todd Kane (Blackburn), Marko Marin (Sevilla), Patrick Bamford (MK Dons), Matej Delac (VK Vojvodina), Milan Llakovic (Walsall), Danny Pappoe (Colchester), Sam Walker (Colchester), Thorgan Hazard (Zulte Waregem), Jhon Pirez (Leganes), Wallace (Inter Milan), Victor Moses (Liverpool), Ulises Davila (Cordoba SC), Romelu Lukaku (Everton) Overall we seem to have upgraded many of our positions and the return of KDB plus the additions of Schurrle and Willian give us a bounty of options in the attacking and creative mid options where we have been lacking for a while. I think we went a little overboard and I say this as a huge Moses fan I think all three are a step above of Victor and thus why he was loaned out. I like the MvG addition but just wish we would added that key central midfield player who would be the difference maker for us (although I am little relieved we missed out on DeRossi and Alonso despite them being short term solutions). Schwarzer is an experienced and hopefully reliable back up keeper although Hilario is a real head scratcher. Eto'o will hopefully prove his worth because imo we missed the boat up front. I do like some of the moves we have made for the future and we seem to have lined up some astute loans. Overall I think a B- sums it up for me as I think we did a pretty good job overall but I am left concerned with just how that Willian money may have been spent elsewhere.
With Lukaku I wouldn't be surprised if he comes back and is the main striker next year, Eto'o is on a 1 year contract and so ideally will move on after this year, Ba may move on in January and then that leave us with the immovable Torres, Lukaku and I guess a new striker. Nate Chalobah may have gotten some minutes at a premier league team but I feel that he may benefit from a half season stay with us to develop training with the first team, then in the second half of the season he can look at a loan move out to a lower table premier league team looking for a CDM/CB to fill a gap of an injured or under performing player. As for Josh I fear he may leave at the end of the season and will never live up to his potential from before, he will be taken on loan by a championship club when the loan window re-opens.
Nate and Josh are most likely going out on Championship loans in the next couple of weeks. I think the rush of spending/deals by Palace hampered that and perhaps the club were betting too much on Palace needing him. As for Josh I think minutes are the key and that will most likely come in the Championship.
Josh needs time definitely but the clubs nearer the top of the table in the championship mostly have done all theri business so would he be going back to a team like boro. I hope he can make it for us but he getting to the age where we seriously have to get him to a club that will be able to nurture him and get him to step up to the plate and use his ability which Tony Mowbray wanted him to do last year but mostly underwhelmed.
he was also being deployed on the left side of a four man midfield for several of his appearances for Boro in fairness he had some good games but was not the star of every match which imo was an unrealistic expectation to being with Ross Barkely who is the current flavor of the month also had some decidedly average loan displays. Still plenty of time with Josh but the Swansea loan did cost him dearly.
Chelsea Youth @chelseayouth 7h It's almost certainly worth considering the impact McEachran and Chalobah's respective wages will have on ability of clubs to loan them.
going to be curious to see how that pans out and I am concerned of the following 1. If Mata and/or his representatives were talking with PSG then what does that say about his feelings on his future with the club 2. If PSG talked to Mata and/or his representatives and were agreeing terms with him was it because he was not happy with his role within the team or did he just want more money 3. If PSG talked to Mata and/or his representatives and "agreed terms" as reported but had not spoken with Chelsea first then isn't that blatant tapping up?
Apparently Lukaku personally preferred a return to WBA but the club wanted him at Everton. I can sorta see their point, as he will learn more under Martinez' system (at least in terms of becoming a more natural fit for the kind of football Chelsea want to play).
Have to say that after a night of sleep I like the move even less. It was probably best for Rom, but having inept Torres, the incredibly inept Ba, and the unknown Eto'o is an awful cast of characters.
Until I see something more convincing, I'm putting all of the Mata talk down to silly season rumor-mongering.
I'm hoping Eto'o will turn out to be a good buy and will show some of his old form for us. he was a great striker not that long ago and is certainly very experienced. The problem I have with his purchase is we don't know how good he'll be. Y'know, it all sounds a bit 'slapdash' for a club hoping to push the multiple trophies this year. It's the sort of thing I'd expect from sperz or maybe Everton.... that sort of thing.
Completely agree. Look Rom was a question mark in every aspect. We didn't know what to expect. What I do know is that he outscored all of our current strikers last season while they were in a Chelsea kit. That makes us less dangerous up front. I don't want to be less dangerous up front. I also was willing to give Rom time up front. I know what I'm getting with Ba and Torres which is that of a whore in church, not much. Rom offered something that neither of the other two did and that was dangerous runs.
WAGNH has a different report: http://www.weaintgotnohistory.com/2...bromwich-albion-loan-mourinho-malaga-comments