Raiola still confident Lukaku will agree new Everton terms

As the man said just before the 1929 Great Crash, "If this fills you with confidence, then I have some real estate in Florida I can let you have for an excellent price."

Whilst I acknowledge Rom's goal contribution, I am ambivalent whether he stays.

Look at Payet recently and Bilic said no way would he sell him and he'll let him drop to the reserves but he soon changed his mind as he realised he is better to cash in on a player. Compare that to how West Brom dealt with Berahino.

Stones had made his mind up he wanted to leave, no matter what Koeman said to him but Rom was prepared to listen to the new boss first and by the looks of things Koeman made him the main man and said he would build his team around him.

We here Rom's dad and agent often talking about big moves to other clubs but how often have we heard Rom himself talk like this.

Rom knows himself there are lots of things he can improve on and he knows if he stays with Everton he will get time and the opportunity to work on his game. If he was to move to a big Champions League club, they will not be so patient with him and I think that he's happy to bide his time with us until he's maybe 25 or 26 and then make his big move.

He knows it's not all about big money, winning trophies and the glory but he also needs to feel happy and wanted. Strikers especially depend a lot on their confidence and the team playing to their strengths and he knows he might lose all that when he leaves.

1) He is a success at Everton.

2) He seems an intelligent fellow, so surely he can see he is now at the spearhead of Everton's re-emergence as a genuine force in English football.

3) The Premier League being so competitive is good for his game and chances of selection for Belgium national team.

4) His game is suited to the quality, pace and physicality of he Premier League.

5) The extra glory of being a key part of Everton getting back to winning things, rather than just another striker to slot into the recent trophy glut for a team like Chelsea or Man Utd. He can become a real legend with us.

6) Everton now have the financial clout to meet the market-driven demands of him and his agent in today's mega money game.

7) He has a good relationship with the manager and is improving under Koeman.

8) He is getting better where he is and is still young.

Possible Reasons to go:

1) Possibly more money elsewhere (particularly China, but he does not seem to be only about money and the poorer standard of the league there should rule that out for a young ambitious player).

2) Warmer climate in continental Europe.

3) Potentially easier to win trophies in a team already used to winning. (But Koeman is a winner and Moshiri wants success and is able to provide the resources previously lacking).

No brainer to stay because we are on an upward trajectory, surely?

Hard to say it's a coincidence that Rom and Barkley are starting to shine after some straight talking and hard work from the coach. Both seem leaner, meaner and more focused on adding additional aggression/decisiveness to their game.

Mr Kone, please give the No 9 shirt to Rom on the way out. It's been too long since we had a proper one!

The RS have done the same thing with Coutinho – get him signed up for as many years as possible and the predatory clubs will have to dig deep. Remember Suarez?

Used to be that a verbal contract was not worth the paper it was written on. Nowadays, a written contract isn't neither.

I was one of those who would get really disappointed and frustrated by his flaws.

I would watch people like Suarez play up front and he never seemed to worry about his first touch when it was knocked up to him. His self belief and assured touch afforded him the luxury of thinking about what he was going to do WHEN he had taken the ball under his spell.

Lukaku would fail to control it most of the time."He's no Luis Suarez" I would think... and he isn't.

I cant stop thinking about that fifth goal on Saturday, possibly because I was more or less in line with Lukaku when the ball was played to him. Would Suarez have had the pace and the power to destroy those two Bournemouth center backs? No fucking chance, neither would Messi, Aguero, or Costa, or Ronaldo. It was spine tingling to watch him give them a yard start and power through the middle of them.

I hate stats. They will never convince me that Lukaku doesn't stay in bed some games, nor that he has an assured first touch, but if I'm right in thinking he is probably the only player on the planet who would have scored that goal, then we must have a unique talent.

It probably time to stop arguing if he has a good first touch, or if he works hard enough. or if the stats prove he brushes his teeth more than any other player. We know what he can't do, It's time we all recognised what he CAN do.

Never thought I would say this, but I want him to stay. Defenders everywhere would have watched last Saturday and they'll be shitting bricks.

Lukaku can basically earn what he wants, either with us or elsewhere. What will ultimately drive his ambition is the prospect of regularly competing for trophies. If he believes he can do that with Everton, I believe he will sign up. If he doesn't, he'll be off.

I've said loads of times that I really hope he signs, but I think a bigger thing to take from this story is how much clout Koeman has with the players. A lot of the squad are showing a marked improvement since his arrival, and not just back to pre-Martinez levels, actual improvements!

I wasn't sold on us signing him as manager at first (I think 'Moyes 2.0' was my view at the time...), but I'm starting to believe in 'the project' and those in charge of it!

The club has to demonstrate that we're serious about winning the Premier League and getting into the Champions League, without actually doing it, to keep or purchase the players that will make it happen.

I think Barkley and Lukaku make an excellent partnership (of sorts) when they're at their best and surrounding them with good players could just win us a few trophies.

Now; Kenwright, Walsh, Koeman, Elstone and Moshiri.... it's up to you!

The club is doing exactly the right thing and I applaud them for it. He either stays and becomes a player we can build a successful side around OR we place ourselves in a position were we can get top dollar for him.

My vitamin enriched breakfast flakes remain urine-free, I promise

I accept that I am in the minority here. So, he signs a contract for say three years and sees that through to it's conclusion. I'm well happy with that.

Sure they weren't stars like they were at Everton but that is owing to having a star in every position virtually.

Another part of me thinks that Rom wants to stay and see what he can achieve at Everton over the next four or five years.

Personally I hope it's the second one.

What evidence is there to suggest money won't play a major part in any decision reached? If Everton were to offer Lukaku a brand new contract without the obligatory pay rise... say a further four years on the exact same terms as his current deal... do you really think Moshiri would be left facing the problem of whether to stitch his original limb back on or lob it in a wheelie bin and splash out for a bionic Winter Soldier number instead?

Is Rom's agent going to be on the phone giving it his best Jerry Muguire: "Forget money. I spit on money. Ptttt. Ptt. Pttt. Spurs offered to double his wages but I say to them I say 'you disgust me and your project, it is shit'. Pay him in candy tabs and Pop Tarts for all we care. It's the project that counts. SELL ME THE PROJECT!"?

Nah, far more likely that, when discussions about a new deal for his client crank back up again, he'll be baring his teeth, licking his lips and saying something along the lines of:

Link

Anyway, give him what he deserves. Which is a LOT. Or make sure he's given extra for x goals, like a bonus system.

Hope he wont ever leave us. But if he would his value should be £80 mill, or even more. Enough to pay him a ridiculous high salary 'til then.

Given his age and scoring merits I don't see anyone in the Premier League worth more than Lukaku.

It is not unknown for exceptional players to stay at one club for all their careers that were never going to be amongst the elite. Steve Bull at Wolves and Matt Le Tissier at Southampton spring to mind. But sometimes staying at a club is about the more intangible reasons than just money and medals. Maybe just sometimes a player is just happy at the club they are playing for.

I'm sure Rom has friends here and has well settled in. Everton are by any measure plainly on the up. We have a top manager. Better players are being brought in and a new ground is in the offing. The new contract will leave him the best paid player at the club and at well over 𧴜,000 a week it is hardly to be sniffed at. On top of this he has hit his best form and is scoring for fun. A squad is being built around him and the manager thinks he's the bee's knees and frequently says so.

He's almost at the stage of an Everton icon. A talismanic player. If he carries on as he is one day he will be up there with Dean, Young, Kendall, Ball, and the other greats who are now immortal. For as long as there is an Everton those players never die. They live on in our collective memories.

That's what it's really all about. Lukaku and also I think Koeman are being handed a once in a lifetime opportunity to put Everton back amongst the elite clubs of English and world football. If they are successful in this endeavour then maybe one day there will be a statue of Rom outside our magnificent riverside stadium and our descendants will be sitting in the Ronald Koeman stand cheering on new heroes.

Isn't that an opportunity worth staying for? Man I wish it was me.

Payet signed a five year contract last year, WHU said they would never sell but we all knew they would for the right price.

Back to the subject of Rom – if he signed a 4 year deal on 𧵎k a week with a 䀁M release clause, then we cannot lose. He is a tremendous goal scorer – but he'll never be as technically gifted as Messi, Ronaldo, Suarez, et al. That said keeping him around will send a signal that Everton are not rolling over for the Sky 4 vultures. Plus he'll likely bang a load in too.

All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

If 㿷 million plus comes in, he goes, new contract or not. Every player has a price.

If he stays for another two years, I will be happy. Let's enjoy having him here!

It's possible he's a cold cynic interested only in cash. But it's also possible he's motivated by the kind of ideals intimated at by Frank (#30). Or some combination of both that only Lukaku knows. Or something different altogether. Who knows?

Great if he stays, scores goals and helps Everton win some shiny stuff. Maybe his agent's phone never rang from one of the BIG clubs so he needs to make a few quid by getting his client a new and better deal with the Blues.

Rom's all-round game, as stated by Koeman, needs to improve. He needs to play well in every game whether he scores or not.

If Rom ever comes to love Everton like Ball & Young, only then will I celebrate any goals he scores.

Better yet, five 23-year old goal scorers like him?

We have the best there is and his agent Mr. "Everyone Look At ME!") states Rom is staying? The best statement of intent from Mr. Moshiri.

We need some defensive improvements. If we get them in? 2 years, tops 3, we challenge for the League.

Better yet, five 23-year-old goal scorers like him?

We have the best there is and his agent Mr "Everyone Look At ME!" – states Rom is staying? The best statement of intent from Mr Moshiri.

We need some defensive improvements. If we get them in? 2 years, tops 3, we challenge for the Premier League.

Oops.

No harm. I stand by all three. The kid has NEVER said he wants to leave.

In the meantime, I for one will enjoy his goals and hopefully he will help us to top four and we can push on beyond his time at the club.

At the moment, it's an exciting time for us and we have some quality young players coming through, we can show the rest of the Premier League that spending huge sums of money isn't necessarily the answer to success.

The next generation of Everton legends will be made of players who truly love the club and know what it means to us fans, Tom Davies will hopefully be the start of that.

I can see Moshiri's millions being spent on keeping hold of the future talent of Everton and not being splashed out on mega money signings that would abandon ship when the next big team comes knocking.

“It's not like the first, second, third and fourth are playing like top teams.

“All of them, except Chelsea and Tottenham, have difficult times and it is not that the first four teams are all playing the best football at the moment. No.

“I have that feeling (we can shake them up) but it is always more difficult to show it than to talk about it.”

Ronald Koeman. Looks like he agrees with Stan and I.

As for Lukaku, I'm sure he does want to be a great player. Though Raiola did say after Lukaku signed up to his agent services, "Had he been Lukaku's agent earlier - he would never have signed for a club like Everton."

No trophies have been won since – yet we now believe Lukaku will sign a deal in the summer. The difference between Everton then and now? Money.

Raiola could equally be sending out a coded message to the vultures along the lines of "If you don't move for him now, my client will be signing a new contract with the kind of release clause that would make him very much more expensive to you in the future".

That however is the cynic in me – I desperately hope that Rom will commit his future to our Club as players of his quality are essential if we are to regain our place at the summit of the game.

For all footballers, like most people, money is obviously important, but so are other factors, and the relative importance varies with the individual. We secured the services of Alex Young and Alan Ball through money (perhaps together with other things like our status then). Unlike me, they didn't dream of playing for Everton when they were kids. They loved playing for Everton, and that was a factor during their time here, in addition to the money.

I cannot see that Lukaku is any different in principle, and the various factors involved would have relative priorities according to his make-up as an individual. None of us know what those priorities are, although many folks are clearly prepared to presume.

The simple fact is, he does a job for us in return for agreed remuneration. In my opinion, he does a very good job, but the remuneration is of little or no interest to me, provided he helps us (and the longer the better) to achieve progress.

Or maybe even Rom! That would be a nice thought

He may well really enjoy playing for Everton but from everything he's said it points towards the fact that he looks upon the club as his employer purely and simply.

We can't really expect any more, he's not from the area and has no historic link to the club, though we can hope he's in love with Everton. (Doubtful IMHO.)

What the club has to do to keep him is quite simple. Qualify for the Champions League and win trophies. If we don't do that in the near future, I think it's quite obvious that he could be offered 𧶀k a week and still want to leave.