Everton have only themselves to blame if Romelu Lukaku destabilises the club

[degsy]

Only thing making us look small timeis this ridiculous pandering of some fans to Lukaku and the expectation that the club should do the same. Since when has any one player been bigger than the club? Since when should Rom be dictating transfer policy to Everton just to meet his aspirations for another season or two?

If Lukaku no longer wants to play for Everton he should leave as simple as that and then we should trade well like we try and do with any transfers. This prevailing myth in the media that Everton are Lukaku and 10 others and the fate of the club rests on him is ridiculous. Him airing all of this in the press has achieved exactly nothing. The proper route of escalation should have been Rom having a word with Koeman that he was thinking of leaving, Koeman kicking off internally at the board, then the board negotiating with his agent, if agreement couldn't be reached then he routinely transferred for a good fee. Instead Lukaku has shown himself up as trying to be bigger than the club and now the premier league media are all watching for this so called test of ambition.

maybe he did have a quiet word with Koeman, maybe Koeman did pass it on (quietly, internally) up chain, maybe it didn't get to Moshiri, maybe he didn't listen.
Maybe Lukaku banging a big public 'kin Gong will make him listen...seems to have got the attention of the media and all here, so maybe he was right.
maybe I used too many maybe's...still, none the less - sort it Mosh...we all like the long term new stadium thing, but the here and now needs sorting too
maybe

 

[d4kyxx]

I genuinely think the board want this so as they have an excuse to sell

That's the reason they left Barkley so late so they have an excuse to sell him and cash in

We have zero ambition it's all about selling our best young players for maximum money

Says it all when we are quick to tie down has beens such as Gibson and barry

 

[Somerset Blue]

The thing for me is I see no benefit from this being played out now for any party, Lukaku derails a potential golden boot season, we lose a player performing well, agent gains nowt because we can't sell even if he agitates a move until the summer. Completely crass, Should've been played out at seasons end!

 

[DualityNSNO]

Sorry mate, but Chelsea, City and Spurs having dynastic moments....we've won more titles than the three of them put together........

But he's right, and it adds to what Lukaku said - having the history we have is amazing, but we're living in the past, and we need to stop. The owners, the players, the fans, everyone - the present and the future are more important right now.

And yes, dynastic - where were we exactly when Chelsea built their team to be a top 4 team and perpetual title contenders? Same for City, and since Pochettino - same for Tottingham, or at least they're heading that way.

We need to stop living in the past, essentially. It means F all that we've won all those trophies if the last one is more than 2 decades ago (and isn't even a major trophy to boot) and we've achieved absolutely nothing since.

*Waits to get negged to death for saying this, just like the last time I did.

 

[DualityNSNO]

Also good article @toffeejoc / @Josh Collins

 

[Mountfield1985]

Only thing making us look small timeis this ridiculous pandering of some fans to Lukaku and the expectation that the club should do the same. Since when has any one player been bigger than the club? Since when should Rom be dictating transfer policy to Everton just to meet his aspirations for another season or two?

If Lukaku no longer wants to play for Everton he should leave as simple as that and then we should trade well like we try and do with any transfers. This prevailing myth in the media that Everton are Lukaku and 10 others and the fate of the club rests on him is ridiculous. Him airing all of this in the press has achieved exactly nothing. The proper route of escalation should have been Rom having a word with Koeman that he was thinking of leaving, Koeman kicking off internally at the board, then the board negotiating with his agent, if agreement couldn't be reached then he routinely transferred for a good fee. Instead Lukaku has shown himself up as trying to be bigger than the club and now the premier league media are all watching for this so called test of ambition.

Nonsense.

So having an ambition to win trophies is "pandering to Lukaku"?

What makes us look small time is the fact that we haven't won a pot for 22 years. What makes us look small time is when we tell the world we are signing Juan Mata, and end up with Enner Valencia.

 

[Caolam]

Only thing making us look small timeis this ridiculous pandering of some fans to Lukaku and the expectation that the club should do the same. Since when has any one player been bigger than the club? Since when should Rom be dictating transfer policy to Everton just to meet his aspirations for another season or two?

If Lukaku no longer wants to play for Everton he should leave as simple as that and then we should trade well like we try and do with any transfers. This prevailing myth in the media that Everton are Lukaku and 10 others and the fate of the club rests on him is ridiculous. Him airing all of this in the press has achieved exactly nothing. The proper route of escalation should have been Rom having a word with Koeman that he was thinking of leaving, Koeman kicking off internally at the board, then the board negotiating with his agent, if agreement couldn't be reached then he routinely transferred for a good fee. Instead Lukaku has shown himself up as trying to be bigger than the club and now the premier league media are all watching for this so called test of ambition.

I disagree with you on this one. Lukaku is a very important player to Everton but it is abject nonsense to suggest that he is bigger than the club. If he was sold today Everton would go on playing in the Premier League, we would go on buying players etc., We might be less successful but we would go on.
I don't know if he has gone to Koeman and expressed his concerns about Everton stepping up to the plate in terms of making a proper bid for the top four. I can't know any of that stuff, I do know Norman felt so frustrated with the board that he went public during the transfer window and it seemed to have the desired effect, maybe Lukaku is taking a leaf out of his manager's book.
All that aside, I see a young man with a time critical talent who wants the best for himself, I want the best for Everton, if it takes a bit of public bitching to move our conservative board then so be it. I would be more worried if Lukaku was just saying he has to leave Everton because we a a small club who can't match his ambition, that is not what I am taking from this, I see a player wanting his team to bring in players who will be successful and in sound so make him successful.


We would appear to be on the cusp of something very good, let us not deliberate and see the chance pass us by.

 

[brieverton]

What is concerning is that both Lukaku and Koeman have both expressed varying degrees of frustration at our transfer policy since January.

By now I expect Koeman and Walsh to be more-or-less clear on the targets to be pursued in the summer, and very clear on the budget exclusive of sales.

It's not reasonable for Lukaku or any other player to be in on that level of detail but I would have thought the general thrust of what Everton are aiming to do in the summer has already, or will be, outlined to him during contract talks.

Either Lukaku is just pandering for a move now anyway and setting the bar unrealistically high in terms of the players we can attract, although he seemed to think in his interview that wasn't the case last time round, or, the club genuinely either don't have the finances to buy at the level Lukaku and most of us want, or the wherewithal to execute.

Lukaku's timing leaves a lot to be desired here but the substance of what he was quoted as saying was bang-on as far as I was concerned. The majority are not asking for everything, now. We have had two transfer windows under Moshiri, one of which was reasonable if unspectacular, and the other which descended into farce on TDD and was generally regarded as disappointing and underwhelming given the fanfare and chest-thumping that preceeded it.

I'm not going to have similarly high expectations for this summer. But, someone at Everton is literally going to have to step and own the summer in terms of delivery, and Moshiri has to start holding people, most particularly Elstone and Kenwright, to account.

 

[Lanolin]

Only thing making us look small timeis this ridiculous pandering of some fans to Lukaku and the expectation that the club should do the same. Since when has any one player been bigger than the club? Since when should Rom be dictating transfer policy to Everton just to meet his aspirations for another season or two?

If Lukaku no longer wants to play for Everton he should leave as simple as that and then we should trade well like we try and do with any transfers. This prevailing myth in the media that Everton are Lukaku and 10 others and the fate of the club rests on him is ridiculous. Him airing all of this in the press has achieved exactly nothing. The proper route of escalation should have been Rom having a word with Koeman that he was thinking of leaving, Koeman kicking off internally at the board, then the board negotiating with his agent, if agreement couldn't be reached then he routinely transferred for a good fee. Instead Lukaku has shown himself up as trying to be bigger than the club and now the premier league media are all watching for this so called test of ambition.

Is he dictating transfer policy to the club though? It read to me as if he was saying that he'd been sold a vision, and had been maybe been convinced to stay this year and consider a new contract because he had been told we were aiming high, only to find that we signed Stekelenburg, Williams, and Bolasie.

I find it odd that somebody who has complained so many times about the mentality of our players now has a problem with a player saying he wants to win things and we're not aiming high enough. I would have thought this was exactly the type of mentality you wanted.

 

[peteblue]

But he's right, and it adds to what Lukaku said - having the history we have is amazing, but we're living in the past, and we need to stop. The owners, the players, the fans, everyone - the present and the future are more important right now.

And yes, dynastic - where were we exactly when Chelsea built their team to be a top 4 team and perpetual title contenders? Same for City, and since Pochettino - same for Tottingham, or at least they're heading that way.

We need to stop living in the past, essentially. It means F all that we've won all those trophies if the last one is more than 2 decades ago (and isn't even a major trophy to boot) and we've achieved absolutely nothing since.

*Waits to get negged to death for saying this, just like the last time I did.

Moshiri has been here how long ?.... we have bought some decent players for decent money, we are all salivating at the thought of a new ground on the docks, the clubs finances are being tidied up and we look a far different prospect than we did just before he arrived. Both Chelsea and City have chucked billions to achieve what they have, the pure definition of buying a title. Spurs have large financial backers and are building a new ground, their last title was in the days of black and white tv or listening to the radio. We are looking forward, having wasted the last 30 years, and we need players who are amongst the best in their position, but if they don't want to be here then get someone who does......

 

[DualityNSNO]

Moshiri has been here how long ?.... we have bought some decent players for decent money, we are all salivating at the thought of a new ground on the docks, the clubs finances are being tidied up and we look a far different prospect than we did just before he arrived. Both Chelsea and City have chucked billions to achieve what they have, the pure definition of buying a title. Spurs have large financial backers and are building a new ground, their last title was in the days of black and white tv or listening to the radio. We are looking forward, having wasted the last 30 years, and we need players who are amongst the best in their position, but if they don't want to be here then get someone who does......

Those clubs (realistically Spurs right now) are looking forward. We're merely glancing and players who are best in their positions don't want to be here, evidently, as they want to play for a team which is good now, not one that used to be amazing 30+ years ago. Doubt anyone's gonna be tempted by Forest just because they won things ages ago, you know? "Someone who does" isn't exactly an encouraging signing, we tried for Mata (allegedly), got Enner Valencia using that reasoning. It took us 6 months to sign a player Koeman wanted from the off - Schneiderlin.

And Moshiri's been here long enough to promise so many things and deliver on just about 1 of them, and that's not even a certainty right now - the stadium. I'm not exactly enthralled, seeing as our best player wants to leave for that same reason.

 

[Saint Domingo]

Is he dictating transfer policy to the club though? It read to me as if he was saying that he'd been sold a vision, and had been maybe been convinced to stay this year and consider a new contract because he had been told we were aiming high, only to find that we signed Stekelenburg, Williams, and Bolasie.

I find it odd that somebody who has complained so many times about the mentality of our players now has a problem with a player saying he wants to win things and we're not aiming high enough. I would have thought this was exactly the type of mentality you wanted.

It is, if he's saying all this stuff in private then I'd be applauding him. I don't like it when players come out and use the press though to make the club look bad, there's no need for it. Now we've got the national (and shamefully the local) media peddling the 'Everton are not ambitious enough to keep Lukaku' line. We're one year into Moshiri's tenure and good progress has been made, we just didn't need this playing out in front of the watching press.

 

[Dave Higgs]

I just think Lukaku was just playing it smart by saying this, it opens the door for him moving to a team that possibly doesn't qualify for champions league for example Man Utd . If he leaves for them and they aren't in the champions league which is quite possible he can say they meet his ambition.

 

[Lanolin]

It is, if he's saying all this stuff in private then I'd be applauding him. I don't like it when players come out and use the press though to make the club look bad, there's no need for it. Now we've got the national (and shamefully the local) media peddling the 'Everton are not ambitious enough to keep Lukaku' line. We're one year into Moshiri's tenure and good progress has been made, we just didn't need this playing out in front of the watching press.

Fair enough.

To be fair, I don't think we can really blame Lukaku for speaking, or for the timing of it as some people have done, as the club has very much played its part in this happening. It's been no secret that we've offered a new contract and the club has done nothing to refute the 99.9% stuff (and we can assume actually encouraged it seeing as Jim White was one of the main culprits) so we can't pretend to be shocked when it leaks that the contract isn't going to be signed. Once that happens, questions are always going to be asked of the player, and expecting him to either stonewall them or lie is a bit of a stretch. If the club had done everything behind closed doors it would be different, but if you play with fire you get burned.

 

[macdog]

What the hell does "ambition" even mean? That word is bandied around so much these days it has lost any currency. I want specifics from manager, board, whoever, about what is planned for this club. And when. And how they plan for it to happen. Ambition means jack, frankly. But it does provide Rom an excuse to go to a club with ambition. Cos we don't have it. Apparently.