Will Koeman’s comments help or hinder Lukaku??

There is no doubting the talent that Romelu Lukaku has at his disposal and the fact that he has been Everton’s talisman over the past three seasons but Ronald Koeman’s comments earlier in the week would have certainly raised eyebrows with the Dutchman being quoted as saying that ‘His potential is greater and higher than Everton as a final destination’ and many will now wonder on the long term future of Lukaku at Everton.

But will these comments go on to help or hinder Lukaku over the coming months? On the one hand it could inspire Everton’s star striker to perform better for the club but on the other hand the weight of expectation could put added pressure on the 23 year old forward. The situation now seems to be that if he doesn’t score he doesn’t get the big move and if he does then he is in the shop window

Lukaku like the rest of his Everton teammates were mere passengers during their visit to Stamford Bridge when Chelsea ran out 5-0 winners. That was a miserable return to West London for Lukaku and a rare off day in a season which has seen him already find the net 7 times in 9 Premier League starts. His early season form on the whole has been impressive and if he was to continue scoring at that rate then he would have scored more than 25 times in this campaign and that would surely reignite interest from a whole host of Europe’s top clubs.

Although there was a flurry of interest in the Summer there was never really a concrete bid to prise Everton’s star asset away from Merseyside and Everton fans no doubt breathed a sigh of relief when Lukau was still at the club once the August transfer window had slammed shut. But is there now a sense that we are seeing the beginning of the end of his time at the club.

Well Koeman with those comments seems to think so. You do have to question the rationale behind what he has said though, surely these are the kind of things that are said behind closed doors and not words that are uttered in public. In effect the Dutchman is now implying that Lukaku is now for sale albeit at the right price. The only logical conclusion I can think of is perhaps Koeman feels that his star striker has such the ego that that he needs it public to fully motivate him

Or maybe this is gamesmanship from the manager. Perhaps the scenario is that Lukaku has already told Koeman he wants to leave and nothing will stop him with Koeman reluctantly agreeing to this. Therefore Koeman is trying to maximise his profitability and performance before he leaves by making sure he gets the former Chelsea forward playing to the absolute best of his ability.

This could very well be engineered due to the fact that the transfer warchest that was promised by new majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri never really materialised therefore a sale of Lukaku at his maximum value would then enable Everton to go out and make some more additions to their squad. If they want new faces at the club then it looks like the crown jewel may have to be sold to fund a spending spree.

You could even argue that perhaps Koeman is playing a particularly long game on this one. If and when Luis Enrique departs as Barcelona manager then the former Southampton boss will be one of the favourites if not the natural successor to the Nou Camp hotseat. If Lukaku was to end up at Barcelona next season then who is to say these two won’t be linking up in the colours of Catalan giants. That may be some conjecture but it certainly does give you food for thought.

It’s almost a double edged sword now for Everton, if Lukaku scores a decent amount of goals then there is no question that he leaves this Summer and if he doesn’t then the results will more than probably dry up and that will be to the detriment to the side. Koeman is playing a risky game here and it’s only over the next few weeks and months will we know if the risk has paid off.