Baba

This could be his real breakthrough season.
 
If Koeman and the coaches get him and the rest of the squad fitter than the last management team achieved, if the rest of the team play with conviction and confidence, and Lukaku himself is coached to reduce his flaws and emphasise his strengths - and he himself improves his attitude (which could happen purely as a result of those coaching and wider team improvements).
 
We could be looking at £100m bids next July..

So much speculation and hyperbole in this thread; it's becoming worse than the red tops! Can't believe that Lukaku is called out when he talks to the press and is now called out when he doesn't as well!
 
Hope he goes now for his own sake, because he's in for a very rough ride from fans if he doesn't. Can't see it being worth him staying from his point of view - though he did start all of this himself, so possibly deserves most of it.

I don't think he is, I've always thought he was quite solid with a lot of potential and rated him even when he was at Wigan.
 
No 'keeper is ever going to look good without a decent run out and without a decent defence in front of him. De Gea looked a joke for the first 3-4 months of his United career, from what I remember, but he blossomed as he settled. Joel was his understudy up to u21s (if I remember correctly) so there's a player in there. He's been given 42 starts over 3 seasons with us with the longest run last season in a team that leaked goals for fun and had the confidence of a deflated snail.

McCarthy offers nothing in attacking and can't pass unless it's a 5 yRd sideways or back pass. He's a yard dog. Gueye can pass very well as evidenced by the match and last seasons stats (he's up there with Barry in completion percentage). He had 2 bad years and has had a lot of bad injuries. Barry can pass very well and his positioning is superb, he's just slow. Gibson is an excellent passer and under moyes was the engine behind starting our attacks. McCarthy had one good year and everything acts like that was the norm, it wasn't, it was an outlier.

Bolasie just isn't class imo. Fair if koeman is looking for a different style player but if so find one better than bolasie.
 
I still think we need someone with mata's creativity. Would be great with rom.

I feel that the future looks bright and that solid foundations are being put in place, but the worrying bit is the period of time between now and reaching that potentially bright future. It's not looking as comfortable as it should, though it's not precarious yet.
 
Depends on how bad the very worst teams are this season, last time they were appalling and if the same applies then we'll have nothing to worry about.
 
Top end is looking far stronger and better prepared this year though. Utd, City, Chelsea, Liverpool are all going to be firing this season. Probably Tottenham as well, maybe even West Ham and Stoke pushing on again.
 
Top half for Koeman this year would be a big success at this stage I think, but might leave him struggling again to bring in the players that he wants next year - if he is actually struggling this year, rather than it being a case of nobody out there that he fancies.

I feel that the future looks bright and that solid foundations are being put in place, but the worrying bit is the period of time between now and reaching that potentially bright future. It's not looking as comfortable as it should, though it's not precarious yet.
 
Depends on how bad the very worst teams are this season, last time they were appalling and if the same applies then we'll have nothing to worry about.
 
Top end is looking far stronger and better prepared this year though. Utd, City, Chelsea, Liverpool are all going to be firing this season. Probably Tottenham as well, maybe even West Ham and Stoke pushing on again.
 
Top half for Koeman this year would be a big success at this stage I think, but might leave him struggling again to bring in the players that he wants next year - if he is actually struggling this year, rather than it being a case of nobody out there that he fancies.

I feel that the future looks bright and that solid foundations are being put in place, but the worrying bit is the period of time between now and reaching that potentially bright future. It's not looking as comfortable as it should, though it's not precarious yet.
 
Depends on how bad the very worst teams are this season, last time they were appalling and if the same applies then we'll have nothing to worry about.
 
Top end is looking far stronger and better prepared this year though. Utd, City, Chelsea, Liverpool are all going to be firing this season. Probably Tottenham as well, maybe even West Ham and Stoke pushing on again.
 
Top half for Koeman this year would be a big success at this stage I think, but might leave him struggling again to bring in the players that he wants next year - if he is actually struggling this year, rather than it being a case of nobody out there that he fancies.

It is, of course, a bit of an underwhelming feeling what we have done so far in the market.
 
But I see no reason to be overly disappointed beyond the natural feelings of a typical fan who likes to see new players coming in and money spent.
 
In reality, we have done some tough, time consuming, business in making 2 appointments well and truly against their previous clubs wishes.
 
We have 3 weeks until the window shuts. We currently have a squad which is capable of pushing hard for top 6...That's not saying this lot will finish top 6...it's saying exactly how it reads...they can push for it. We just need the right additions to push us on. I don't think the club is allowing itself to be bent over by agents and clubs. Which is great.
 
Koeman can judge our squad against a squad that finished 6th. Walsh can judge our squad against a squad that won the League. The judgements of these 2 needs to be trusted. And we need to trust that if they feel not much is needed, then not much is needed.
 
Decisions have been made on who is not wanted. See squad numbers. It's clear that everyone else is wanted inc. Lukaku and Stones. Time will tell what happens there. And what happens there might be the catalyst for what happens next.
 
Trust and patience is key.

'Arouna Kone came on to replace the £28m forward.' 
That single statement sums up the gravity of our predicament if he were to be injured for the start of the season. Could be another nail biting season looking at how others are building and strengthening - or even just consolidating on where they were last season.
 
If Lukaku were to be out injured and Jagielka potentially as well we could be cannon fodder, unless Gueye alone can make a massive difference to our soft centre.

Cahill is donkey.

I hope very much that it would mean exactly that. Lennon's a nice, handy player that works hard but we need better than him in all honesty.

I think it's equally important that we are focusing efforts behind the scenes on selling, getting the wage bill down and creating a bit of headspace to recruit without breaching any PL barriers on FFP. I'm thinking along the lines of Kone, Niasse, Stones (if the money is as mad as has been suggested in the papers), McGeady, possibly McCarthy if we can get a chunk of the investment back.
 
Frustrating that no new signings have been made, or even appear close, but if by this time next week we've sold a couple of those names above then that would be a step forward.

I just hope he had nothing to do withe Leicester's £20m bid for Troy Deeney
 
 

Absolutely agree. Baresi is the greatest CB of all time for me, and whilst it's absurd to compare him with Terry and Ferdinand (like it would be to compare Maradona with Rooney), he combined all of the timing of tackle, reading of the game/ positioning (Terry stuff for me), distribution and composure (Ferdinand strengths) that they had between them, but it was the 'Terry' aspects of tackle timing and positioning to intercept that made him imperious for me.
 
I remember watching games on C4 on a Sunday where he played for 90 minutes and wasn't beaten by an opponent once - in a time when the likes of Batistuta, Balbo, Mancini, Signori, Zamorano, Baggio etc. we're all at the peak of their powers in the same league

If we can get a John Terry type defender rather than the Rio Ferdinand Defender stones supposedly will be then I'm all for selling him.

No no, this guys was a £30m+ Player 18 months ago. Surely worth £50m now.
 
I'd be happy if we got our money back for him and he's nowhere near this club again.

In fairness though Matt we don't directly vote for a prime minister, we vote for a political party.
 
This happens all the time (Gordon Brown, John Major, Jim Callaghan and a number of others including Lloyd George & Churchill in wartime).

Clattenburg not calling a foul on ronaldo is a travesty. Either he's incompetent or he got instructions from uefa. (Actually propably both).
 
Crappy final to epitomize a crappy tournament.

I agree, once the window closed he kept quiet and good on him. But handing in the transfer request invited Chelsea to keep trying their luck, which will have been distracting defensive strategies (if there were any to start with) as well as creating uncertainty as to who would actually be the starting CB pairing.
 
I'm not commenting on the Rom comments, he's got his own threads for that, but I maintain that the impacts of gobbing off or handing in TRs has a lot of comparable points.

You're getting confused with penne Shukes mate.

I don't understand why you would say the EU likes referenda; they're purely a national matter. ??
 
Personally I'm very much against referenda because I believe elected politicians in a representative democracy are much better positioned to decide most issues. You can't run a country on populism.

Significantly more now that the pound is going to plummet!

Paid the price? He's fucked the country over, created a rift between an entire country (and the UK) and now he's fucking off before it kicks off. He's not paid any price. He's a chicken shit who couldn't bare the consequences of the referendum he agreed to.
 
He needs to be strung up.

it's hardly his fault we had a defence like a paper sieve, he scored 25 goals in all competitions for fucks sake! If we want to break top 4, we need a striker who can get 20+ goals and expect the rest of the team to do the fucking jobs!
 
edit: thats also exactly why people will pay £60m+ for him