Squad Status: 2023/24 Season

[ROTG]

1 hour ago, Sciatika said:

If Jackson, Broja and Burstow were all injured, I would stick Disasi up front before I played the fat boy.

Is that just cutting your nose off to spite your face?

Like him or loathe him, he scores goals and is on the clubs payroll

[Mark Kelly]

1 hour ago, ROTG said:

Is that just cutting your nose off to spite your face?

Like him or loathe him, he scores goals and is on the clubs payroll

The most salient point of the Lukaku situation is that he has told the club he never wants to play for us again. 

[chara]

Just now, Mark Kelly said:

The most salient point of the Lukaku situation is that he has told the club he never wants to play for us again. 

So he is in agreement with most of us?

Regardless of a possible Poch fitness "Pigmalion" (not a spelling error!) miracle he will never regain or earn the trust of the faithful and we will never accept a player who does not give his all..... 

[Ham]

8 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

The most salient point of the Lukaku situation is that he has told the club he never wants to play for us again. 

Allegedly. 

[Mark Kelly]

8 minutes ago, Ham said:

Allegedly. 

Well yeah but Poch did say the situation was clear even before he took the job so Lukaku was not in his plans.  I heard him say that myself. 

Lukaku is done here. 

I'm expecting a derisory eleventh hour offer from Inter which I expect has been their and Lukakus plan all along. 

I sincerely hope when that inevitably happens we tell the pair of them to stick it where the sun doesn't shine. 

Lukaku can buy himself out and become a free agent if he values himself so highly or rot at Cobham. He's not Chelsea calibre. 

[asvaberg]

1 hour ago, Mark Kelly said:

Well yeah but Poch did say the situation was clear even before he took the job so Lukaku was not in his plans.  I heard him say that myself. 

Lukaku is done here. 

I'm expecting a derisory eleventh hour offer from Inter which I expect has been their and Lukakus plan all along. 

I sincerely hope when that inevitably happens we tell the pair of them to stick it where the sun doesn't shine. 

Lukaku can buy himself out and become a free agent if he values himself so highly or rot at Cobham. He's not Chelsea calibre. 

Actually, it's a tragedy. He had the potential and his statistics cleary shows this.

Something happened in  Milan (and/or in London in 2021). Too bad, but he's history as far as I have interpret Poch. 

Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2009–2011	Anderlecht	73	(33)
2011–2014	Chelsea	10	(0)
2012–2013	→ West Bromwich Albion (loan)	35	(17)
2013–2014	→ Everton (loan)	31	(15)
2014–2017	Everton	110	(53)
2017–2019	Manchester United	66	(28)
2019–2021	Inter Milan	72	(47)
2021–	Chelsea	26	(8)
2022–2023	→ Inter Milan (loan)	25	(10)
International career‡
2008	Belgium U15	4	(1)
2011	Belgium U18	1	(0)
2009	Belgium U21	5	(1)
2010–	Belgium	108	(75)

[Mark Kelly]

34 minutes ago, asvaberg said:

Actually, it's a tragedy. He had the potential and his statistics cleary shows this.

Something happened in  Milan (and/or in London in 2021). Too bad, but he's history as far as I have interpret Poch. 

Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2009–2011	Anderlecht	73	(33)
2011–2014	Chelsea	10	(0)
2012–2013	→ West Bromwich Albion (loan)	35	(17)
2013–2014	→ Everton (loan)	31	(15)
2014–2017	Everton	110	(53)
2017–2019	Manchester United	66	(28)
2019–2021	Inter Milan	72	(47)
2021–	Chelsea	26	(8)
2022–2023	→ Inter Milan (loan)	25	(10)
International career‡
2008	Belgium U15	4	(1)
2011	Belgium U18	1	(0)
2009	Belgium U21	5	(1)
2010–	Belgium	108	(75)

 

[JaneB]

What's happening with Malang Sarr?  He doesn't have a squad number.

[Sciatika]

London is Blue Podcast are bigging up Djordje Petrovic as similar to Courteois in style, very agile for his 6'4, good on crosses and as a shotstopper with exceptional stats. 

[Sleeping Dave]

3 hours ago, ROTG said:

With poch fitness regime the fatboy would more than likely be back to size and shape of the player the club brought from Milan within a couple of weeks.

 

If that was the only problem we wouldn’t contemplate selling him. But it isn’t, his attitude stinks and no running drills in the world will change that unfortunately. Lukaku is a narcissist of the highest order. It’s all me me me me me me me me me. 

21 minutes ago, Sciatika said:

London is Blue Podcast are bigging up Djordje Petrovic as similar to Courteois in style, very agile for his 6'4, good on crosses and as a shotstopper with exceptional stats. 

I wonder what Gaga Slonina thinks of that potential signing..? Why are we signing two young goalkeepers from the MLS? Wouldn’t it have been enough with one of them? 

[Sciatika]

They say Slonina is not ready and Petrovic is. 

[Ham]

2 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

Well yeah but Poch did say the situation was clear even before he took the job so Lukaku was not in his plans.  I heard him say that myself. 

Lukaku is done here. 

I'm expecting a derisory eleventh hour offer from Inter which I expect has been their and Lukakus plan all along. 

I sincerely hope when that inevitably happens we tell the pair of them to stick it where the sun doesn't shine. 

Lukaku can buy himself out and become a free agent if he values himself so highly or rot at Cobham. He's not Chelsea calibre. 

I find it simply incomprehensible that we have a player who cost us £90m and he's at our training ground and we need a target man and on principle, sensible people are suggesting the club won't consider playing him (even off the bench) if he doesn't go anywhere this window. 

It's almost childishly petulant to adopt this stance. 

TBSD will ultimately agree if he's still here.  

 

[Mark Kelly]

3 minutes ago, Ham said:

I find it simply incomprehensible that we have a player who cost us £90m and he's at our training ground and we need a target man and on principle, sensible people are suggesting the club won't consider playing him (even off the bench) if he doesn't go anywhere this window. 

It's almost childishly petulant to adopt this stance. 

TBSD will ultimately agree if he's still here.  

 

I understand fully your stance. 

My stance is that he has with Inter colluded to have us over. 

We should not let him profit from that. 

The sensible option would be to re integrate him, I'm for the spiteful option. 

[chiswickblue]

1 hour ago, JaneB said:

What's happening with Malang Sarr?  He doesn't have a squad number.

He was injured in the latter part of last season and apparently needed surgery, which is surely hampering his search for a new club.

He's waiting to be sold or loaned, along with Lukaku, CHO, Tino Anjorin, Jamie Cumming and Josh Brooking (it appears).

[Rob B]

1 hour ago, Sleeping Dave said:

If that was the only problem we wouldn’t contemplate selling him. But it isn’t, his attitude stinks and no running drills in the world will change that unfortunately. Lukaku is a narcissist of the highest order. It’s all me me me me me me me me me. 

I wonder what Gaga Slonina thinks of that potential signing..? Why are we signing two young goalkeepers from the MLS? Wouldn’t it have been enough with one of them? 

I know Petrovic is still young for a GK relatively speaking, but he is almost 24, whereas Slonina has only just turned 19.

Slonina was clearly signed as a ‘project’ or ‘prospect’ whereas Petrovic will immediately go into the match day squads presumably.  The latter has been bought as we have managed to shift Mendy and Kepa in the same window. 

There’s a few data / scouting / analyst type accounts I follow on Twitter that rate this guy highly, and one in particular has been raving about this guy way before we became involved.  They think he will be our Number 1 by Christmas.

[chara]

40 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

I understand fully your stance. 

My stance is that he has with Inter colluded to have us over. 

We should not let him profit from that. 

The sensible option would be to re integrate him, I'm for the spiteful option. 

Ham is absolutely right but to my dismay, and great disappointment with myself, I am in the MK corner with the spiteful option.

Something to do, maybe, with the fool me once shame on you ...line of thought.

[Ham]

43 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

I understand fully your stance. 

My stance is that he has with Inter colluded to have us over. 

We should not let him profit from that. 

The sensible option would be to re integrate him, I'm for the spiteful option. 

I think his position with the Inter Ultras is totally untenable.  I genuinely don't think he's going there. 

Agree to disagree mate as I'm for the pragmatic decision.  

If he really wants out, show how good a footballer you are, score a shit ton of goals for Chelsea, which benefits everybody, and then, by all means, feck off for a decent fee. 

[Ham]

34 minutes ago, Ham said:

I think his position with the Inter Ultras is totally untenable.  I genuinely don't think he's going there. 

Agree to disagree mate as I'm for the pragmatic decision.  

If he really wants out, show how good a footballer you are, score a shit ton of goals for Chelsea, which benefits everybody, and then, by all means, feck off for a decent fee. 

Well well.......

 

 

[ROTG]

4 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

The most salient point of the Lukaku situation is that he has told the club he never wants to play for us again. 

Mbappe told psg the same thing 

[ROTG]

2 hours ago, Sleeping Dave said:

If that was the only problem we wouldn’t contemplate selling him. But it isn’t, his attitude stinks and no running drills in the world will change that unfortunately. Lukaku is a narcissist of the highest order. It’s all me me me me me me me me me.

You are right. 
however the goal post have moved a bit this summer, and probably the only way out in January is to prove his worth again. 

IMO a fit Lukaku was brought back into the squad, he is good for 5-10 goals between his return say mid September and the next transfer window. 

Edited August 23, 2023 by ROTG

[xceleryx]

Have read we've dropped our asking price to around £35m to try and encourage more interest. 

As I sort of said from the beginning I think he'll remain here at least until January, his options are minimal to non-existent so he's going to have little choice in the matter, as will we - given we're not just going to release him for nothing and pay him out. 

Would not be shocked if Lukaku accepts his desire to move ain't gonna happen, looks to mend a few bridges to get himself integrated back into the first team, and then both parties reassess things in January or the summer. 

Like it or not we do need another striker, icing one that cost us £90m and earns north of £300k pw seems a little ridiculous from a sporting perspective. More so when you consider what our alternative options look like and may cost. 

[Sleeping Dave]

2 hours ago, xceleryx said:

Have read we've dropped our asking price to around £35m to try and encourage more interest. 

As I sort of said from the beginning I think he'll remain here at least until January, his options are minimal to non-existent so he's going to have little choice in the matter, as will we - given we're not just going to release him for nothing and pay him out. 

Would not be shocked if Lukaku accepts his desire to move ain't gonna happen, looks to mend a few bridges to get himself integrated back into the first team, and then both parties reassess things in January or the summer. 

Like it or not we do need another striker, icing one that cost us £90m and earns north of £300k pw seems a little ridiculous from a sporting perspective. More so when you consider what our alternative options look like and may cost. 

At what cost I’ll ask? The Lukaku situation cannot solely be assessed from the players perspective or the clubs needs. What happens when he pollutes all these young players minds that we’ve spent a minor fortune on assembling? 

One bad apple can ruin the whole basket. This is a very apt way of thinking of it. 

[xceleryx]

1 hour ago, Sleeping Dave said:

At what cost I’ll ask? The Lukaku situation cannot solely be assessed from the players perspective or the clubs needs. What happens when he pollutes all these young players minds that we’ve spent a minor fortune on assembling? 

One bad apple can ruin the whole basket. This is a very apt way of thinking of it. 

Well yeah, that's the kinda the catch to it all. Do we risk trying to make use of him should he remain, or do we just accept the situation and cast aside someone that does score goals and because of the baggage attached that may negatively impact the team in other areas.

I suppose we've also gotta weight up the fact we still need a striker, the market for one is baron, and if we do find one what cost does it come at. 

Would, for example, spending £60m or so on Balogun be seen as a better move opposed to trying to reintegrate Lukaku? 

[Michael Tucker]

1 minute ago, xceleryx said:

 Do we risk trying to make use of him should he remain,

Of course we  do (or should do).

1 minute ago, xceleryx said:

I suppose we've also gotta weigh up the fact we still need a striker, the market for one is baron, and if we do find one what cost does it come at. 

All of this.

 

[chiswickblue]

I also don't think we should be signing another young striker that might eventually be good enough, we already have enough of those. Better to sign someone that is definitely good enough, or if that player doesn't exist or isn't obtainable, keep our powder dry for the future.