5 arguments from fans and pundits that look insane in hindsight

#5 Alvaro Morata is better than Romelu Lukaku

It was commonly argued at the start of the season that Morata was a superior signing to Lukaku

If Manchester United fans ended up with egg on their faces over their argument that Depay was a better signing than Firmino.

Then it looks like they’ll end up getting the last laugh over those fans – and pundits – who tried to argue last summer and then at the beginning of the season that Chelsea’s signing of Alvaro Morata would trump their own signing of Romelu Lukaku.

For those who’ve forgotten, the scenario almost mirrored that of Depay and Firmino, as initially, it looked like Morata was heading to Old Trafford while Lukaku would be returning to Stamford Bridge – to the club that had sold him back in 2014.

Eventually, the big Belgian was signed by United for a fee of £75m, while Morata moved from Real Madrid to Chelsea for around £60m.

Almost immediately people were arguing that Chelsea had gotten the better deal; the argument was that Morata had more top-level experience and had been largely misused at Real Madrid.

While Lukaku – despite scoring bucketloads of goals for Everton – was somewhat of a flat-track bully who might go missing in the bigger games.

Even United fans were sceptical, with one posting on Quora that “Morata is simply the better player of the two”.

The pundits seemed to agree and despite both men starting the season well, by November – and a match between the two sides that was decided in favour of Chelsea via a Morata goal – at least one writer seemed confident that Chelsea had definitely gotten the better deal, labelling Lukaku as a “streaky player currently on a streak he won’t be enjoying”.

In hindsight though, you could argue Morata is the streaky one – since that goal in November the Spaniard has only scored a further seven times and has struggled greatly at Stamford Bridge, even losing the faith of manager Antonio Conte.

While Lukaku, on the other hand, has been pretty consistent – he’s scored 18 since and has 30 in all competitions this season, a strong return by anyone’s standards.

The argument that Morata is the better player now seems to be dead in the water.