Michy Batshuayi

Morata and Lukaku off the top of my head.

Lacazette like you mentioned.

Then there's gambles like Milik and Janssen.

I read somewhere Higuain's €94M release clause expires shortly. And he won't sign an extension. He's another option or suppose PSG make a move for him, that could mean Cavani could be available.

There's also less fancied but good options like Gameiro and Bacca. Depends what Arsenal are looking for.

S wrote: They overpay only if they deem that player worthy

This nonsensical sentence illustrates why that 'overpaying' and 'worth xy' talk by fans is so hapless.
If they deem the player worthy of the sum, why is it overpaying?

It's only overpaying if a player could be bought for less and the competitive bids were lower... namely, the selling party would accept a lower price to begin with and other buyers are helping to clarify a market price that is lower.  EVEN THEN, it's not a universal truth because something may have more value to one buyer compared to the others for various reasons.

I'll give you a business world example...  Company A buys company B for 120% of its market price because Company B allows Company A to enter a market that it otherwise couldn't.  So the 20% premium is justifiable for Company A.

A football example...  Chelsea needs a CF because it has a often injured and inconsistent one currently.  The marketplace for CFs is very tight and there are very few players available.  Not signing a proper CF would put significant risk on Chelsea's upcoming season.  So paying a 20% premium for such a player is justifiable for the club because it takes out a major risk to its upcoming season. If the club doesn't act, it may get a proper CF anyhow... but it also exposes itself to the possibility of not signing an adequate one.

So when people say "overpay" or "underpay", it's really complete nonsense.

S wrote:Morata and Lukaku off the top of my head.

Lacazette like you mentioned.

Then there's gambles like Milik and Janssen.

I read somewhere Higuain's €94M release clause expires shortly. And he won't sign an extension. He's another option or suppose PSG make a move for him, that could mean Cavani could be available.

There's also less fancied but good options like Gameiro and Bacca. Depends what Arsenal are looking for.

Morata and Lukaku are much more expensive than 40M, Milik and Janssen are cheaper but more unproven, Gameiro and Bacca are Giroud level. How much will be the new release clause for Higuain?

I'm happy for him and hope we use him next season!

It's pretty evident that Batshuayi is a far superior striker to Morata

Chelsea should be loaning around the latter

Worst decision we made this season was loaning out Bats.

I've always rated him.

I had forgotten all about this guy.

Had a great little loan spell last winter, now Wikipedia tells me he's got 1 goal in 15 league apps at Valencia. What happened?

The Bundesliga is complete garbage, is what.

He is a good footballer... but he's not committed to being a good professional. Just one of those guys, not unlike Benjamin Mendy, that manage to do the least possible with their god given talent. A shame really.

I think Bats will do better now that he is back with Chelsea. The Valencia situation is such a head scratcher. They have Rodrigo and Santi Mina, then they decided to sign Gameiro permanently and Bats on loan when half the time last season they played with 1 striker. This season of course they had to play with 2 considering 4 relatively good strikers.

No surprise they are back to underperforming, which I think is down to bad planning as it has been for years, not Bats.

They played with two strikers mostly last season. Any two from Rodrigo, Zaza and Mina.

I was looking at their scoring numbers. Rodrigo this season has 2 goals but an xG of 7.27, suggesting he's under performing by a whopping five goals. Gameiro has 2 goals and an xG of 4.1. Mina 2 goals, xG 4.05. Their strikers have been quite wasteful this season, by the looks of things.

Except Batshuayi, that is. He's got one goal, with an xG of 1.4. So he's doing as well as expected given his current performance levels and the team he's playing in.

I think Valencia are due a resurgence in the second half of the season.

Jay29 wrote:They played with two strikers mostly last season. Any two from Rodrigo, Zaza and Mina.

I was looking at their scoring numbers. Rodrigo this season has 2 goals but an xG of 7.27, suggesting he's under performing by a whopping five goals. Gameiro has 2 goals and an xG of 4.1. Mina 2 goals, xG 4.05. Their strikers have been quite wasteful this season, by the looks of things.

Except Batshuayi, that is. He's got one goal, with an xG of 1.4. So he's doing as well as expected given his current performance levels and the team he's playing in.

I think Valencia are due a resurgence in the second half of the season.

Before I saw this I was gonna guess he doesn‘t get many good chances playing for Valencia. The reason he scored so much for Dortmund was because they create a lot of great chances every game, not just in the Bundesliga either, Dortmund will create against anyone. Almost anyone will do well playing as a striker for Dortmund.

With that said, he‘s one dimensional and can‘t create anything without a lot of help. Even for Dortmund he scored a lot of tap ins, easy chances created by others. He‘s just not as good as we thought he was.

Valencia's coach said their patience had run out with his attitude a couple of weeks ago.

Comparing his current form to his time at Dortmund raises some interesting questions.

For example, at Dortmund he scored 7 in 10 (xG 6.75) with 3.12 shots per 90. At Valencia, he's taking 3.05 shots per 90, but has 1 goal in 15 games. Without looking at a shot map, that suggests to me that his shot selection at Valencia has been much poorer than it was at Dortmund.

There could be any number of reasons for that. One would be Valencia asking Batshuayi to perform a different role than Dortmund did. Valencia aren't as creative as Dortmund, either.

On the other hand, he's only played 502 minutes for Valencia this season. He's been a bench player. At Dortmund he played 837 minutes across less games.

So is he performing poorly because he's not a starter, or is not a starter because he's not performing? Maybe a bit of both?

Either way, Valencia have clearly decided he's not the right striker for them. Doesn't mean he can't be the right striker for someone else. Like Dortmund.