KOEMAN: Naive to sell Lukaku? YES. Should he be sacked? NO
EVERTON put the horse before the cart in the summer and that was their mistake. They sold Romelu Lukaku and then fleshed out the squad, rather than making it a priority to replace him. It is impossible to take 24, 25 goals a season out of a side and not pay a price for it. And it’s coming back to haunt them big time at the minute. Don’t get me wrong, Jordan Pickford, Michael Keane and Gylfi Sigurdsson were all fine additions to the squad. But a Fernando Llorente, an Olivier Giroud or a Christian Benteke should have been their No.1 target after letting Lukaku go. Llorente might say he is in with a chance of winning something at Tottenham, and Giroud is obviously settled at Arsenal. But I am certain Benteke (above, right) would have been gettable for not much more than Crystal Palace paid for him. And, having seen him at Aston Villa, I am convinced he would have been tailor-made for Ronald Koeman’s side.
He has pace, holds the ball up well, brings others into the game, and he is good in the air.
They haven’t anyone who does that, and it is the obvious weak link in their side.
That shows a bit of naivety on Everton’s part. Even though Ronald Koeman, Steve Walsh and the board worked to get a striker they don’t appear to have gone hard enough. Some people will say Koeman and the board should have stood firm with Lukaku and refused to sell him until they had done a deal to replace him.
But it was obvious that he wanted to go and they got good money for him – whatever anyone says £75million is not a small amount of dough.
Now they find themselves in a position where they are struggling for goals, and as soon as they concede their heads are dropping and there isn’t the confidence to come back into the game.
What I would say to Evertonians is that they should get behind Koeman and stick with him.
They are a very patient bunch of supporters and I know they like Koeman. They appreciate the players he has brought in, even though they know there is one piece of the jigsaw that is still missing.
Koeman is a very experienced manager and, frankly, if they turned on him and the board decided to make a change then the new boss could not bring in a new striker until January. Back in the day, managers in this situation would have been tempted to look in the reserves or the age groups for a big centre-half with an eye for goal and stick him up front, change the style of play and see what happened.
Sometimes such a move can get you out of a rut.
I would be tempted to do that with the Under-18s, even U-17s, just see if anyone can come in for four or five games and cause a stir, as Marcus Rashford did at Manchester United.
The problem Everton will have now is that clubs will look to charge them big in January.
But it will be worth it if they can find that player to get them out of their hole.