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Lukaku’s back, with his tail between his legs

Despite the best efforts of his father, it appears that Romelu Lukaku will be staying at Goodison Park this summer. His father had previously insinuated that Lukaku would have left the club before the start of Euro 2016, but here we are four weeks after Belgium got knocked out of the tournament by Wales, and he has turned up at pre-season training with Everton.

You’d have thought by now that the Lukaku family would have learnt to keep quiet over such matters, as it only looks unprofessional, angers the fans and has now made him look stupid when the transfer hasn’t come off. Players have agents that do the talking for them, and in Mino Raiola, his agent does talk an incredible amount. He is the same agent of Juventus star Paul Pogba and knows how to negotiate himself a lot of money, but with his client at Everton, it looks like he’ll be moving on later, rather than sooner. I hope Everton can improve to a point where he doesn’t want to leave at all, but that is far off at the moment.

One of the reasons that it doesn’t look like he’ll be moving is the lack of potential suitors. In Spain, Barcelona and Real Madrid wouldn’t be interested. In Germany, Bayern Munich aren’t interested. In Italy, Juventus have just spent 75 million on Gonzalo Higuain, in England Chelsea don’t seem interested and Manchester United have acquired Ibrahimovic and Paris Saint-Germain seem happy to have Cavani as their main striker. Those are the clubs that Lukaku aspires to be at, but he’s either not yet good enough or they aren’t interested. Any other club would just be seen as a stepping stone to him, so they’d be no point in moving.

He has a lot yet to improve on, and the sensible place to do that would be at Goodison Park. Everton finished 11th, and are not in Europe, most fans appreciate that a top class player may aspire to play elsewhere, but there is a right and a wrong way to do it. If John Stones moves on, it’ll be with the blessing of the majority, he has kept quiet and kept trying for the club.

When you do it the wrong way, it can look pretty stupid when you end up not actually getting your move. Lukaku will return to Everton under the scorn of most fans, including myself. I was angry at the comments made, but I have no doubt that I’ll be singing his name from the stands sometime soon. Football fans are fickle, and a few goals will soon turn opinion on his side, especially if the Koeman era starts well.

The atmosphere at Goodison Park in the last two seasons has been dire, mainly due to the woeful product that’s been on the pitch including last season which was the worst home record in the history of the clubs. Players don’t want to play under that anxiety, and fans don’t want to sit there and see their team beat. A good start will see a return to a much better atmosphere at Goodison Park, and make everyone happier in the process.

Everton’s current striking options away from Lukaku are Kone and Niasse, and considering that Gerard Deulofeu has been playing upfront, they could be gone soon too. We need him to be firing, and once he does, all will be forgiven.