He's a quality player. Not world class but certainly a 15 goals a season man if played enough.

Do you think there is a risk Liverpool will do a Tottenham this season? Five signings so far if this comes off and rumours of two or three more to come. Liverpool could well end up with a massively different squad to last season, much like Spurs when they were crazy with the Bale money.

Not really. We need more players for the CL, something Spurs didn't have. Spurs signed a load of players who they were clearly dependant on for their starting XI, I still feel like we have a pretty good starting XI, especially in attack, which should allow some of the players a bit more time to settle. Spurs' issue was they signed a new first choice striker, two midfielders, two playmakers/creative players and then sacked their manager despite the league standing not being too bad. Rodgers hasn't had a sensational record in the market since he's been at the club, but I do believe the players we've signed so far have all been first choice players who he definitely wanted, I'm just worried that whoever else we sign won't fall into that category.

Buying Remy for less money than you'll get for Borini is a great bit of business, and does indeed make it pretty much risk free.

Drogba back at Chelsea. Wise, risk-free move, or emotional nonsense?

It depends on what else happens. If it means we get rid of Torres then I'm delighted at him coming back. If it means we flog Lukaku then I think we're taking another risk.

On Torres I think he absolutely has to go. The problem is getting rid of him. There's a chance he'll be going back to AM. On Lukaku I'm not sure. I think he's still too young and too raw for CFC, but he thinks he's ready. I trust Jose's judgement on whether he'll make it or not.

On Drogba I think he left in a perfect way when he won the CL with his last kick. In some ways I don't want him detracting from that, but on the other hand I'd rather be at Stamford Bridge next season than playing for Roma or New York City.

Man city are going to walk the la liga graveyard this comming season

Regards

King james

I can't imagine anything more chilling than those washing line flags covering every area of this place we call England.

Liverpool will struggle to make top 4 this season.

- They haven't replaced the goals and assists that suarez gave them. They've lost a world class player and not replaced him and that will hurt them across the season.
- Yeah they've signed a whole bunch of players, but they needed more bulk anyway. None are world class.
- They have the CL to deal with
- Man united have a better manager this season and no Europe
- Chelsea nal and city have all strengthened their team to a greater extent than Liverpool (taking into account where they were last year in relation to pool and the fact they had CL, taking into account who Liverpool have lost and the dynamics of the teams and where they signed players)

For them to have competed for the title again, and play in the CL alongside that this season they needed to keep suarez and sign the players they already have.

Suarez's departure will have regressed Liverpool by a good few years, you can't possibly replace one of the world's best strikers and expect a season as good as the last one. I'd be willing to bet that Liverpool won't be in the top 4

Same here.

Like we all thought at the time, when gerrard slipped over, it was a massive huge unbelievable missed opportunity..... rather than just a delay on success.

Liverpool will fail to make the top 4, the transfer market will become difficult, gerrard will retire (over the coming years not all next season) and they'll be right back where they were a couple of years ago.

I see Ross Barkley has signed his 'Protect the club in return for them letting me go at an agreed point in the future' contract.

Where is he going then?

A Manchester club?

I think most people would be willing to bet that, but nobody would have bet on Liverpool finishing top 4 last season, as most expected Spurs to be the only challengers for that place.

United may have a better manager but I still don't see a particularly better side. Their greatest strength for years has been their defence, they've lost Rio and Vidic who have great experience, they've lost Evra (not a great defender) who again has years of experience, and they've brought who in? Luke Shaw, a fantastic prospect, but will he fix their defensive woes? Not for me. They haven't strengthened the midfield defensively, they still have Valencia, Young and Nani on their books and they still look to be persisting with Rooney and RvP when, for me, the partnership just doesn't work that well.

Liverpool do look weaker, we definitely lack the player to make the difference in the big games, but I don't think people can underestimate Rodgers and his ability to improve people. I never considered Sterling an option at the start of last season, he's arguably our most consistent attacker now. Coutinho I felt could only play as a '10', but he's played midfield and shown a better all-round game. Sturridge was class last year, who's to say he's reached his ceiling? Who's to say any of our players have reached their ceiling? Suarez never arrived here a £75m player, I feel we've got some fantastic players on our books and the manager to make them even better. Who's to say Sterling won't get 20 next year? Coutinho won't get 15? Markovic won't get 15? I remember people saying all sorts when United let RvN leave the club, but Fergie put faith in Ronaldo and Rooney taking the mantle. I think Rodgers could do the same with Sturridge and Sterling.

Still, Liverpool's biggest weakness remains our full backs. So crucial to our play, but often our biggest liabilities defensively. We haven't signed any depth or even quality first choice players.

It's really that easy to see through, isn't it. A friend of mine retweeted Everton's tweet about it yesterday, and my only reply was 'AKA: moving to Citeh in 2015 then''. I haven't really missed the Premier League ans all the circus it brings

He'll go to city and it'll ruin him.

Nailed on for Chelsea, as soon as either Hazard or Oscar leave (Probably next summer) - The upcoming Lukaku deal will basically become a swap, with maybe a Chelsea reserve chucked in to balance things up.

We are already looking at getting Christian Atsu from Chelsea on loan for this season, so I'd reckon he will be the reserve in question, if he performs to a decent standard.

Not sure about 28m for lukaku.

I think it's a decent deal. Another improved season and they'll make that back and then some next year. Regarding Barkley, let's be honest he's going to go for at least £50m when he goes, if Everton get Lukaku, another Chelsea player and £20m-£30m, they'll have done well, especially as there's profit to be made in Lukaku. I'm curious what it is the 'big' clubs don't like in him, as he'd done enough to get a chance IMO. More power to him, he'll be a much better player if he focuses on playing and he'll have plenty of time for CL football, there really is no rush.

Quite a bit too much.

32 goals in 66 Prem games is not a bad return at all.

If Everton decide to sell (Or he wants to leave) in a few years time, if he keeps up that goal rate they should make a decent profit on him.

I think Everton overpaid for Lukaku. But I think they had to overpay for him or else they wouldn't have got him. If Everton hadn't paid as much as they did then CFC would have just kept him as back up for Costa and Torres.

I think his goalscoring rate is good and there's obviously a great deal of improvement because of his young age.

I think Lukuka's WBA/Everton goalscoring record is pretty much the same as Demba Ba's PL goalscoring record with West Ham and Newcastle. I think Lukaku would have probably struggled even more than Ba did in getting game time at CFC.

I think the transfer of Luke Shaw to United for around 30m, the transfer of Fellaini to United and Everton's valuation of Baines at around the same amount means that Everton can't plead poverty in trying to buy players that they clearly need.

I was 100% against the sale of Sturridge to the scousers. I thought we undersold him and underplayed him. Lukaku I couldn't care less about him going. He's never done anything at CFC and I've never really seen anything from him that ever suggests he can become a top level player. I think there's been a huge amount of hype surrounding him simply because he was a CFC player who we loaned out when our players weren't scoring. But IMO if Lukaku had been at Chelsea he'd have barely made it on to the pitch anyway.

On the F365 front page there was a poll to ask who would score the most this season between Costa, Lukaku and Torres. Lukaku won the poll, but IMO Costa will dwarf Lukaku's return.

You can't really claim all that when Lukaku hasn't ever been given a chance by Chelsea. 2 starts was it that he left on? If he'd played two seasons and had a bad record then fine, but when he's not had a chance how can you claim he's never done it at Chelsea?

Chelsea made a big mistake in loaning him to Everton in the first place. Having scored so many for West Brom, why wasn't he playing for Chelsea last season? Lets face it, Chelsea's strikers were all appalling last season and Lukaku up front instead of Torres could have won Chelsea the league.

IMO it all boils down to a lack of compatability on a personal level between Mourinho and Lukaku. Doesn't go anywhere other than that for me. Mourinho wouldn't play him because he doesn't like him. The fact he scores goals for fun doesn't seem to sway him. Mourinho has said some ridiculous things about Lukaku's attitude and ambition, yet his report card from both West Brom and Everton has been impeccable. And surely demanding first team football and moving on loan to lesser clubs IS showing ambition as he wants to prove his worth? How on earth is he supposed to do that when he's watching Fernando Torres trip over his laces or equally watching Diego Costa banging 30 in?

So Lampard to City then? Seems bizarre to me. Firstly, he's not good enough to get in their team and secondly why destroy your legendary status at Chelsea to have a run around once every three weeks for City? I could understand it if this was World Cup year and he was trying to stay involved for that, but now that's over, why do it?

I think it's a Man City decision, rather than a Lampard one. I think once put to him by Man City he feels he's got to show loyalty to the people who are now paying his wages, but I don't think he'd have signed up for this if they'd said they were doing it from the start.

Personally it doesn't destroy his CFC status for me. Nothing can do that. As far as I'm concerned he's too old to do a job at CFC any more so I don't see him offering much to City either. I think City can afford to do it because it's part of their giant FFP con and I don't think we were willing to mess around with one for him.

IMO Demba Ba has a right to feel let down by not getting enough of a chance at Chelsea. Daniel Sturridge was completely and utterly screwed over by CFC. But Lukaku never really showed anything at all that he was worthy of being a Chelsea player.

He may have only got 2 starts, but that was partly down to never looking worthy of a start when he came on as a sub.



I'm pretty clear in my dislike for Torres. The piece of business I most wanted this summer was to get rid of that steaming pile of excrement. I'd have definitely been happier if we'd shipped Torres out instead of Lukaku. That applies to Ba as well. In fact I think pretty much any PL striker in England would have scored more than that scouse ****.

But having said that, it's moronic BS to think that just because Lukaku knocked in 15 for Everton he could have done a similar job at Chelsea. Teams simply don't play against Everton like they do against Chelsea. My dislike of Torres is mainly down to the fact that he hides too much, I absolutely hate that. Lukaku though didn't hide, he just looked lost. Just like he did in the World Cup.

I think if Lukaku had stayed at CFC then Ba would have left instead. I think instead of Lukaku earning his place as our starting striker, he'd have just struggled to get on the pitch in the same way as Ba did.



Arsene Wenger came up with the self-serving cack that we wouldn't loan Ba to them because we were scared that they were competitive. IMO it had nothing to do with that. We were more than willing to let Ba go to Arsenal but we had to change our plans because Lukaku was playing up and wanted to go out on loan again.

I think the loan last season was better for Lukaku, better for Chelsea and better for Everton. I think if Lukaku had stayed at Chelsea he'd have just struggled like Ba did.

Lukaku did have a decent return last season. But nearly all of his goals came in the first half of the season. In the second half of the season the goals dried up completely. That doesn't matter too much if you're Everton and you're not winning anything anyway, but to Chelsea who were aiming for a title/CL win it would have been murdering us.

IMO there isn't a personality issue between Mourinho and Lukaku, there's a quality issue. If Lukaku was good enough for CFC we'd have been keeping him. We don't think he is going to be good enough so he's gone.

I think Mourinho's issue with Lukaku last season was that Lukaku was often running his mouth about Chelsea pushing him out when it was Lukaku who pushed for the move. Lukaku needed to just let his goals do the talking but the stupid kid wanted to run his mouth as well.

As a club I think CFC have done very well out of Lukaku and I'm happy with his sale and the price we've got for him. If Lukaku continues to grow and becomes a PL great then it will go down as a mistake. I trust Mourinho to make that decision.