Interesting thoughts on the striker options we are left with.
Balotelli is someone I'd be hesitant to sign. There's no question that he's talented, but hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard, and he doesn't. His best ever goal scoring league return is 13, and he's only got into double figures twice in the league after seven years of playing for clubs like Inter, City and Milan. Having said that he's still obviously still young, so can't be blamed too much for his poor return so far. Our squad right now is actually a model of professionalism, hard work, teamwork, and team spirit. Non of these are words I'd associate with Ballotelli. I'd far rather go for someone like Benteke who smashed in 23 goals in his debut season last year for a struggling Villa, despite being on a bit of a current drought.
Pragmatically, signing Berbatov for 2m and then going all out for Costa/Falcao over summer would obviously be the best idea, and would certainly be my preferred choice all things considered if we can't get a superstar in now.
Morata on loan I wouldn't bother with. What can you expect from a kid in a new league, only here for a few months? I'd be far more interested in a permanent deal, purely based on how highly rated he is.
Pato I'd hate us to sign, for reasons I've explained previously on GW.