Sign Dembele or focus on the flanks: How should Everton spend the £75m Lukaku money?
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According to just about everyone, Everton have accepted a bid of £75m for Romelu Lukaku from Manchester United.
If true, this all but seals the Belgian’s exit from Goodison Park, bringing to an end a four year spell on Merseyside that began with a loan from Chelsea in summer 2013. Since then Lukaku has scored 87 goals in 166 games for the Toffees, a rate of production that has commanded the colossal fee.
£75m would be a record transfer between two British clubs, smashing the £50m Chelsea paid Liverpool for Fernando Torres back in 2010. It’s a truly enormous amount of money and although Everton have lost their main striker and goalscorer, they’ve gained a huge amount of cash with which to do business of their own.
But what kind of business could they do, exactly? They’re probably going to re-sign Wayne Rooney on a free (although his colossal wages will eat up a considerable amount of their budget), but just how could Everton spend all the money they get for selling Romelu Lukaku? Squawka investigates!
Throw it all at a superstar
With the departure of Lukaku, Everton are truly losing a superstar. So the instinctive thing to do would be to go out and get another superstar. £75m is a huge amount of money and a great many clubs could be tempted into selling their players if presented with that fee.
Moussa Dembélé
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Dembélé is an unreal talent. Despite being just 20 years-old he bagged an incredible 32 goals in 2016/17 for Celtic. He was their everything in attack, starring on the domestic front and even against other European sides in the Champions League.
No doubt Celtic would absolutely not want to sell him, especially as they will be hoping he can lead them back into the Champions League group stage – they have to make it through two rounds of qualifying and will want Dembélé for those games.
But a massive £75m bid? That would surely test their resilience.
Felipe Anderson
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Another player with an incredible potential to become an utter superstar is Felipe Anderson. The Brazilian was linked with Manchester United a couple of summers ago, but besides that hasn’t really been touted as a future star, which, when you look at his production, is absolutely nuts.
117 completed take-ons, 75 completed chances, 442 passes in the final third, 18 through-balls, 9 assists. The man was stupendous and could become the superstar winger that would help new signing Sandro Ramírez and (probably) Wayne Rooney really hammer in goals.
Alvaro Morata
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Why not be really cheeky? As a result of United signing Lukaku, Alvaro Morata is now stranded at Real Madrid. He desperately wants to be a first-team regular, ideally at a Champions League club, but Everton have the cash to match Real Madrid’s ridiculous valuation.
So why not throw the money at at Madrid and offer Morata a platform to show all those top clubs that he’s a striker worth taking seriously as a starter. Moreover it would give him the chance to win the one club competition he has entered and not won: the Europa League.
Re-stock the attack
Olivier Giroud, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Ryad Boudebouz
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Obviously once Lukaku goes, Everton will be short in attack. Lukaku was directly involved in 50% of Everton’s goals in the Premier League last season (goals and assists). So they need to get goals, but it’s not just striker where they need help, it’s also on the flanks.
Their wing options are Yannick Bolasie, who is recovering from a cruciate ligament injury and could take a year to get back to his best. Kevin Mirallas who’s selfish and inconsistent. And then Aaron Lennon who is obviously dealing with some difficult issues as well.
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Put Gylfi Sigurdsson and Ryad Boudebouz out there, however, and suddenly Everton would be cooking. Especially if they added Olivier Giroud as the striker. Giroud is a phenomenal presence in the air; no player has scored as many headed goals as his 25 in the five years since he joined Arsenal.
Sigurdsson completed 86 crosses from wide areas last season, the second most in Europe’s top five leagues. Boudebouz completed 72, which was the eighth most. They would be superb talents, capable of playing as no. 10 but hapy on the flanks, sending crosses in for Giroud to thump in.
Focus on the flanks
Lucas Perez, Ryad Boudebouz, Dusan Tadic, Lucas Lima
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But alright, say Everton do sign Wayne Rooney and Ronald Koeman decides that he wants to entrust Sandro Ramirez and Ademola Lookman as his sides strikers. What to do next? Well, you address the one major weakness in the Everton squad: the wings.
As mentioned before, Everton have a weakness on the wings. So yes, Boudebouz is back. But given Gylfi Sigurdsson would cost an enormous amount of money, if they wanted to truly re-stock their wide options, they would leave a more expensive option like Sigurdsson in favour of adding more bodies (which they will need as they attempt to juggle Premier League and Europa League commitments).
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So, yes, Boudebouz. But also Dusan Tadic and Lucas Perez. The former is a superb creator from out wide, creating 105 chances from the flanks last season (and it’d be nice for a Southampton player to join the blue half of Merseyside for once). Meanwhile Lucas Perez is a winger who could play up-front in a pinch but most assuredly could score goals if given the chance; he always performed for Arsenal when called upon, he just wasn’t called upon that much.
Lucas Lima is a left-back who completed an incredible 78 crosses in Ligue 1 last season while playing for Nantes. Leighton Baines is obviously superb but at 32 he will need managing if he is to continue to produce at the incredible level he has been (he created 240 chances from out wide last season). With Lima backing him up, Baines won’t run the risk of overworking and breaking down. And Everton will have a fully stocked squad thanks to spending the Lukaku money wisely.
Read more at http://www.squawka.com/news/sign-dembele-or-focus-on-the-flanks-how-should-everton-spend-the-75m-lukaku-money/967238#4jK5wu1P7FZlfz7j.99
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