A Look at Lukaku, Everton’s Beast – Golden Boot Chase and Ambition
The purchase of Romelu Lukaku in 2014 was unbelievable to me at the time, in a pretty desolate era we sold Fellaini and funded the clubs record signing. To spend so much money on someone so young should have felt like a much bigger risk than it did at the time. We weren’t taking a punt on a 21 year old with bags of potential, we were building the future of our club. After scoring 15 league goals for us on loan in the previous season and 17 goals before that for West Brom, we were making an excellent choice in one of the most important decisions Everton ever made.
3 years later after signing him, in 2017 there would be rumours that Everton could see Lukaku’s departure earn them the world record transfer fee, going to one of Europe’s biggest and richest clubs. He and Pogba share the wolf of an agent, Raiola, who will be sure to sell on for a pretty penny as he always does. Breaking the bank ended up being a wise decision.
Breaking the club record transfer fee is no small feat, especially for a team who instead of having billions had Bill Kenwright. Despite having a great career from the ages of 16 to 21 it is always possible for a player to mature and not live up to expectations, this is not just a possibility but the norm; most players labeled ‘promising’ never achieve their estimated great heights. However Lukaku is not most players.
I remember at the start of last season when Liverpool signed Benteke there was a lot of talk on Merseyside about who would be the main Belgian. To my shame, at the time I truly believed Benteke would replicate his optimal form he had at Villa and score more than Our Rom. Lukaku still had so much to learn back then, his first touch was at times so bad I gasped on multiple occasions. Shocking. What’s more shocking is comparing him then to now, he’s clearly put in the work on the subtle, small things, and for his hard work he will receive the golden boot this season.
King Rom. This season he has hit his best form yet, and earned his place in the list of club’s best number 9’s.
Leicester City is where it all started. They kicked Everton out of the FA cup despite them having other priorities while it was all we had to focus on at the time, which resulted in anger, which concluded into ferocity. I remember when Ferguson was retiring and Moyes was rumoured to replace him, hearing how the ferocity teams are met with when they travelled to Goodison was built under Moyes and would dissipate with his departure. Goodison did deflate. Losing against Leicester in the third round reignited Goodison for the longest stint since Moyes left, and is a wave we are currently still riding.
Riding the top of that wave is a free scoring Romelu Lukaku, currently sitting on top of the goal scoring table and any Evertonian will tell you, Lukaku scores at home. He’s been the poster boy after our loss to Leicester, our goal difference rose again and he has for the first time in his career established himself as a top European striker.
Related Story: A Case for Kenwright
An area of his game that is often overlooked, Lukaku has consistently contributed to build up play this season, racking up a total of 42 total chances created this season. But these are not all just small side passes in the box, 36 have been key passes. He shows trickery and skill on a weekly basis, has set up some brilliant goals with divine play-making ability (outside of the foot cross for Kone), and has now started providing effective defending against set pieces.
I hold the opinion that Everton will not suffer as much as most people believe, I see Lukaku’s goals as a conclusion of the football Everton play, not all as some wondrous solo effort. My predictions are he will win the golden boot this season, and leave the club either this summer or next for upwards of £80 million. The only thing keeping him here at the moment is the new manager and owner sharing his ambitions of absolute success, only time will tell if our vision will be actualised, and if it is then Lukaku could stay and become an Everton legend. Anyway, back to reality…
Up the Ev.