Not bidding for Lukaku in January sums up Arsenal's lack of ambition
By Peter Staunton
Only Sergio Aguero has out-gunned the Everton striker
since the start of the 2012-13 season and he looks every bit the
leading man for a Premier League title contender
COMMENTWhile Arsenal crashed out of the FA Cup last week to Watford, in what might rank as the worst match of a disintegrating season, Everton marched on towards the semi-finals thanks largely to Romelu Lukaku – who scored twice against Chelsea.
Lukaku has come to be known as the poster boy of Chelsea’s wildly irresponsible reluctance to blood young players, the club which can only watch enviously as their one-time prodigy flourishes elsewhere. And this season, flourish he has – adding consistency to his bullying best.
“Technically I became stronger, faster, better and my performances are better,” Lukaku told the press last week. “It is not like I play three games great and six games bad, I have always been good this year and this is something I wanted."
Only three players have reached the 50-goal landmark at a younger age than Lukaku – Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney. The 22-year-old has scored more Premier League goals than anyone other than Sergio Aguero since the start of the 2012-13 season. And he now boasts the highest goal tally of any Everton player in a Premier League season.
How Arsenal fans must wish they had someone like him to solve some of their problems. When Roberto Martinez was tying up an ambitious loan deal for Lukaku in 2013, Wenger was signing Yaya Sanogo. That kind of underwhelming signing has led to this crescendo of frustration currently felt by the Gunners' increasingly exasperated support.
Wenger neglected to sign any outfield player at all last summer. A squad which was good enough for the top four and the last 16 of the Champions League last season have proven, unsurprisingly, good enough only for the same this time around. Nobody is saying Wenger would have gone for Lukaku when he became available for sale by Chelsea two seasons ago and it’s arguable whether or not Jose Mourinho would have sold him to his great sparring partner anyway.
But nothing is stopping Wenger testing Everton’s resolve with a bid these days. He would be a better option than Olivier Giroud – the only natural striker in a squad which has scored only 19 home goals this season.
Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Manchester United and even Chelsea have all been credited with interest in Lukaku ahead of the summer’s transfer window. But he would appear to be another one that Wenger just doesn’t fancy. He fills his squad up with players who are not of the same standard as those who slip by.
Martinez took a huge risk in blowing Everton’s transfer budget on Lukaku two summers ago – some £28 million on the striker he had on loan a season before. It looks a bargain now with him worth at least twice that. Martinez had the belief in Lukaku and in the surroundings he was giving him. He has been rewarded for that faith.
Take a promising young player, train him well and give him the platform to excel – once upon a time that was the Wenger template. Lukaku is now a genuine world class player. He is capable of winning games for Everton on his own and it is a pity that they have not had the results that his performances deserve.
“If you look at all the big players in the league they do it from day one to the 38th game of the season and that is what I want to do,” he said. "As a player, individually, I am doing my best. I have grown as a player, as a man, and as an individual.”
Martinez believes unwaveringly in what he’s doing at Everton and with the backing of new majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri he is well capable of adding more gems to an already richly-stocked young squad.
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