Don't think it is a case of being happy, Its more doing the best we can with the hand we been dealt.

If Costa's mind has been made up then there is little we can do about it.

If Conte had come in and sold him right away, It would have been we did try and keep him,He gives him a chance to change it and we leaving it late. Its the price we paid for not bringing in a decent back up striker in the past windows

If it happened would it be ideal? Far from it but it would be a very sensible attempt at finding a passable solution.

There are not many top top strikers out there and even less one's who are either available or not quite far down possible transfers already.

No where near ideal but it is the situation we find ourslefs in and we need a solution fast

Is it 100% that Costa wants to go, and that am are prepared to pay the going rate for him?

There are never 100% when it comes to matters like this, The only ones who know will be Costa and the club.

If he does want to go we have a big problem, Anyone watching Costa knows if he is not happy on the pitch we might as well be playing with a man down, He is not the type to get on with the job, With him only wanting to go to one club it presents another issue, It is "his" club, They will have him back no matter how poor of a season he has. He is worshiped by the club.

I remember going to the Super Cup in 2012 and Torries was more popular with the Madrid fans then any of their current players, We went on to a train carriage thinking it was full of Chelsea fans due to the Torries songs we could hear and it was full of Atletico. He could sit on the bench train with the reserves or go away on holiday and they would still want him back. So the ball is more in Costa's and Atletico's more then ours.

We can either keep a player who would be 0% use to us and pay him the wages or we can sell him for a decent price (not necessary the going price).

I think they would pay a decent price for him and not take the Micky but I not so sure we would get the price we normally would for such a player

Lukaku isn't good enough to be the main striker at a top club as things stand, so I don't think splurging £75m on him would be an acceptable solution to replacing Costa if he leaves. Whilst I get that the very best strikers won't be for sale, I would find it hard to believe Lukaku is the best we could get for that sort of money.

Unless we've got a bottomless pit of cash to spend, then I'd rather we waited until a better option comes up. It's not as if we don't have other positions in the team/squad that need sorting out more urgently at the moment.

But if Costa wants to go can we afford to wait around?

I agree Lukaku is not good enough to be first choice but he would be a better first choice by far then anything else we have at the moment andi don't really see much more around at the moment and who would could do a deal by the start of the season. Putting a wantaway Costa in the team we might as well put a member of the youth team in.

If we have no striker capable of scoring goals in this league then it wont matter about the other positions we need filling.

Yes, that's the problem. I'm not exactly thrilled by the idea of bringing back Lukaku, but it's not easy to come up with a realistic alternative. I'm still hoping that Costa stays, you would have thought he would be the ideal player for Conte. But then it would be a hell of a lot to pay for a number 2 striker after already bringing in Batshuayi for £30m+ ?
I suppose the argument would be that if Conte intends to play with two up front we will need three proven front men. But I'm not sure that Costa/Lukaku would work.
As a replacement for Costa, Lukaku looks to be a step down. The only thing in Lukaku's favour is his age, there's still a fair chance that he will get better over the next 2/3 years..and to be fair, he ain't bad now.

I don't think we can get hung up on the price. We need to consider the way the current market operates. Is a box room in certain parts of London worth the current rents we are quite often seeing? No of course not but that is the market, We can either be part of it or try to operate outside of it.

All we can do is get the excellent deals when we can (Kante for example) but we cannot fool ourselfs that we can pull them off every time. Look at the deals for Sane and last season Martel both excellent players but with add ons you looking at 40m+ and 50m+ for players with not as impressive previous seasons performances and not at this level.

Regardless of our view of his abilities we have to accept his age,his goal-scoring record,His previous transfer fee,The lack of pressure on his club to sell and his contract mean the price is about right. That's what we need to worry about with transfers going forward, Not the amount of money but is the amount of money in keeping with the market.

If Costa goes we need a proven goal-scorer, If Costa stays with his injury record and disciplinary record we need a proven goal-scorer. The last few seasons have shown us that without a top class forward we are not that much of a top team and we struggle all over the pitch.

Every season seems to become a vital season for us but this one really is, We don't challenge for the title this season and I not sure where it leaves us, Conte will more then likely be sacked and we will be playing catch up in a massive way and one with the current framework of the league I not sure we could come back from with clubs like Spurs and Liverpool around.

Lukaku is not the ideal solution far from it but at the moment, As things stand TODAY he is one of the most logical and when we have so few options available we might have to bite the bullet. Of course if in the future better options present themselves he would be pretty easy to move on and with the market the way it is we should get a decent price on him

We have what two weeks before we kick off the season, Regardless of Costa staying or going at the moment he is not looking ready for start of the season. Its coming up to 8pm on Monday night, We got West Ham, Is Lakaku more likely to score a goal for us then anyone realistically available to us today?

But for 75 million, why can we not throw it at AM for Greizman?

It would be the 3rd/ 4th largest transfer of all time if we pay that amount, behind Bale, ronaldo and Higuain.

Because they would unlikely sell him plus would he want to come to Chelsea?

Again we are talking about realistic transfers not fantasy ones.

Even if they are willing to sell, Even if he is willing to come a transfer like that would take time.

Where the transfer stands in some pointless list again is not important.

More so when the situation and circumstances etc in those 3 transfers are very different to the situation and circumstances in this one.

The prices in spain are much more, dare i say, "normal" as they are outside pf the PL bubble.

75 million in spain is still a fortune, we should tempt AM and see what they say.

And what if they say no?

Do you think because Spain are outside the the PL bubble they are unaware of the valuations of the PL bubble? Yes because the Pogba deal is cheaper because it is outside of the PL bubble the Sane deal is cheaper because it is outside the PL bubble? They are aware of valuations here and our need for types of players and the money we to spend. They are not going to ask for less because of different valuations. It makes no logical sense that they will ignore a valuation in terms of a cheaper one.

You have a asset, In your country it is worth X in another country it is worth Y. A company from that country comes in to buy it, What valuation would you put on it?

Do we do our normal silly thing and go back with a couple of million more? And then a few days they say no again.

We play our first game in 12 days time our second in 17 days time and at the moment we have no fit premiership experienced striker.


"wait and see what they say" is not a way to run a business.

Neither is making a £75m panic buy.

I'd sooner go into the season with Costa, Batshuayi, Traore and Remy, and see how it goes. If Costa doesn't knuckle down then he can go in January. At least that gives us more time to assess what we've got and look at other options for signings. For all we know Batshuayi could take to the Premier League like a duck to water.

Of course Costa might be happy to stay anyway. It's all just media speculation at this stage.

Let's concentrate on sorting out the defence in the meantime.

I not sure we can call it a panic buy, The stories we have been looking at him have been around for quite a while. I don't think buying a player who has scored something like 50 odd goals in 3 seasons (and that is totally ignoring his goals for his club before he came to us) for average clubs at the age of 23 can be seen as a panic buy at any price

I just think by Jan with our current striker options with the teams that we will be competing with for a top 4 finish we are more likely to be in serious trouble then we are to be in a decent place and with Chelsea being Chelsea it would be made even worse by our policy with regards to what happens when things turn bad.

paying 75 million for a player worth around 40 is what makes it a panic buy.

Notice that we have absolutely no other competition at that price for Lukaku, we are the only club interested, and if press reports are to be believed (ahem), he wants to come back and play for us.

This should reduce the price imho

We are not the only club interested in him, Everton are interested in him and they have more of a say then we do.

I want to date Kelly Brook guess what? Kelly Brook has more say in it then me

You might think they should reduce the price but you are not in charge of transfers at Everton and if you was and you reduced the price you would be out of a job pretty quick

To say he is worth 40m is not logical.

He was worth around 30m two seasons ago (this is a fact as that is what he was sold for), To say that the performances since then have only added 10m to his fee makes no sense. Its not living in reality, Even if we forget the performances and the goals he has scored the market has changed since then so his price would have gone up anyway

is there better value in the market, outside of the UK?

Why would that make a difference?

Would you sell something to a company inside the UK for a cheaper price then a company inside the UK would?

Is Juventus doing that?

Was the sale of Sane cheaper because it was to a UK club?

New to the thread. Hi guys.

Just wanted to add on this topic. I think the most important thing is if Lukaku is the man Conte wants we should go and get him. He is guaranteed PL goals and we are going to need that right from the start.

No one really knows what players are worth right now because of the way the market is so we either keep our money in our pocket whilst others spend or we spend what it takes to bring in the players the new manager wants. City and United are setting the bar right now backing their new bosses, I feel we should do the same.

That is another factor to take into consideration.

If the transfer committee has given Conte a list of players available and he has signed off on him then its something we need to think about.

Any club with realistic hopes of being a title contender (i don't think finishing top 4 will be enough for us) are making top money signings and if we go forward with this one is more likely to come off then any of the others.

Hi Don,

I agree with you there, if the difference between us being 2nd a 5th is maybe 10-15 goals then I'll be honest I'm not going to care is Lukaku is only worth £50m and we pay £70m if he is the man that scores those goals.

If Pogba goes to United and works for their midfield will their fans care about the price? Not a chance. Same with the new players City are bringing in.

Lukaku can score 25 goals for us no problem, that could make all the difference to the season.

I fear that one of Conte, Mourinho, Klopp or Guardiola will have a poor season, it can't go well for all of them. Time is probably short for them all if they start badly these days.

Welcome.

If I can try and shake the ridiculous fees being spouted about out of my head, then I see a case for Lukaku. It's his attitude that doesn't sit right with me, if we get him, he needs to shut up and do his talking on the pitch.

I really hope we see Diego and Eden up front v AC Milan, enough of this RLC/Traore experiment. Just not working for me.

A major part of the problem is our own making

We set the valuation of around 30m two seasons ago, We then cannot turn around and then ignore it. We set 30m after he did nothing with us and scored 17 goals for West Brom. So why should not Everton add to the valuation after he has scored 40 odd goals?

We have to be more smarter when selling younger players, Not only should we add a clause where we get a percentage of any future sale but also a buy back clause, Real did it with Morata and they could still sell him. Its the lack of common sense that is costing us big money, You make mistakes (I am not saying selling him was a mistake but lack of forward thinking was) and you have to pay for them further down the line.

Salah has, officially.....again, signed for Roma for £12.75m, which seems a bit low to me.

thats the third time they signed him

He is a cracking player, i with we could have given him more of a chance. he is one we will buy back in 3 years time.

hi monkey,

welcome!