Everton fans will have been bitterly disappointed by the news that their goalscorer in chief, Romelu Lukaku, revealed that he does not want to sign a new contract with the club.
The big Belgian is level with Harry Kane at the top of the Premier League scoring charts, having bagged 19 goals so far this season, but it's clear that he sees his future somewhere else after he explained the reasoning behind his decision to not stay on with the Merseyside club.
While the lure of the Champions League was the main reason, and something that was well known when the news broke, Lukaku was speaking at a charity event for 'Kick It Out' in Liverpool on Wednesday when he revealed that frustrations with the club's transfer policy were also a large factor behind his decision.
Lukaku claimed to have known that club had the opportunity to sign several players, who were not named, but opted against doing so for various reasons. This lack of ambition saw Lukaku grow disillusioned:
Obviously stuff is changing and stuff is happening, but there were some players that we could have got, that I knew the club could have got, and they didn’t get, and they are playing in this league. I am not saying names, but they are doing well.
Everton as a football club has a great history. But the future has to be written. You get me? Because we always talk about the teams of the 80s and 70s and if you look it was great. But we as players, we want the fans talking about us instead of us talking about them.
No disrespect, but you know what I mean. You want to be remembered as well. No matter where you play you want to be remembered. You cannot only be remembered by scoring goals, you want to be remembered by winning trophies.
That is what the fans want. So instead of living in the past, you have to think ahead. How this club has to grow, how this club has to improve, which player does it want to bring in so you can challenge for the big trophies? Sometimes I will speak to Vincent Kompany who was at Manchester City when it all happened. He said, ‘Rom, one summer I just came in and boom, boom, boom, boom... Robinho from there, that guy came in, this guy came in, this guy came in (clicking fingers)’ and then everyone was criticising them, but at the end league titles, FA Cup here, League Cup there. That is what we want as players.
Interestingly, Lukaku admitted that he had offers to leave the club last summer, but chose to stay because he wanted to learn from Ronald Koeman, something he says
If I didn’t think I would have learnt something from him I probably would have left. I probably would have said, ‘You know what, I don’t have the energy or whatever’.
But from our first conversations when I was at the Euros in France they were really honest, we spoke a few times and he explained how he wanted to play, how he expected things and stuff and I was just listening to what he had to say. I told the manager it will take a few weeks, but once I get it, don’t worry, it will be fine.
He did take time to adjust, as did Everton as a team, but Lukaku is back playing with as he did last season and, unforunately for Everton, there will be a queue of clubs lining up to offer him the shot at Champions League football that he badly desires.
Lukaku admitted that he is not yet in the top category of strikers just yet, and listed Luis Suarez, Edinson Cavani, Robert Lewandowski, and Karim Benzema as the standard setters, where he believes he can be if he has the right platform.
It's clear that he has decided Everton are not the club to offer that platform, and it very much looks as though he'll be off in the summer.
He's also seriously harsh on Gonzalo Higuain.
