As part of our guest writing slot section we work with small Everton blog writers to promote their work.  Today’s blog is from Craig Hoyland and you can find his blog here: https://craighoyland1.wordpress.com/2017/04/14/everton-dont-need-lukaku-barkley-for-moshiris-plan-to-succeed/

Everton Don’t Need Lukaku & Barkley For Moshiri’s Plan To Succeed!

It doesn’t matter whether you’re part of the Lukaku is irreplaceable brigade or reside in the ‘he doesn’t run enough’ camp, only a kopite would argue he isn’t a goal scoring machine.

Lukaku is currently king of the Premier League goal scorers, three in front of his nearest rival, Harry Kane, and he didn’t need a hat full of penalties to get there. I don’t care how much he does or doesn’t run so put that argument in the bin where it belongs, he does what he’s paid to do, he scores goals and he scores a lot of them but he wants Champions League football and he wants it now.

As Evertonians we know all about the media circus surrounding Lukau’s apparent refusal to sign a new contract and we know how he likes to run his mouth off to the media whenever the opportunity presents itself, it seems the ego is just part of the package if you want a top European hit man and you could argue it’s a small price to pay for the amount of goals Lukaku scores but it’s getting tiresome. Let’s not forget he still has two years left on his contract so he’ll only leave for a Champions League club this summer if Everton decide to sell him, so forget all the nonsense about super agents and players having all the power, it’s Everton who hold all the cards here!

It’s a slightly different story with Ross Barkley. He’s been frustrating, his development has been stagnant with no real progress for a few years and much of the blame for that has to lie with Roberto Martinez.

Yes, Martinez gave Barkley his first real opportunity in the Everton side but that’s where his positive impact on Ross ends. There was never any accountability under the Spaniard, just far too many complimentary catch phrases and buzz words for frustratingly mediocre performances and Barkley’s development suffered for it.

After almost a full season under the tutelage of Ronald Koeman Ross is starting to look like the player all Everton fans hoped he would become and has more assists this season than David Silva, Coutinho, Mane and Hazard, most of which have come in 2017 since Koeman moved him into a slightly different position and gave him a freedom to play that he hadn’t had before.

Koeman has said on more than one occasion if Barkley doesn’t sign a contract he’ll be sold in the summer and with not much more than a year left to run on his current deal, rightly so. Forget all the sentiment about him being a blue, it’s a business decision, you sign or you go this summer, simple!

So with the current doubt over Lukaku and Barkley signing new contracts, what difference would it make to Everton if they decided to sell both players? We know how good Lukaku is and he’ll only improve. We’ve seen the difference Koeman’s tough love stance has made to Barkley’s development, now let’s do something we all do every match day and play at being a football manager for a few minutes.

If Everton got a combined fee of around £110m for both players and bought in Keane, Sigurdsson, Batshuayi, Rooney, Van Dijk, surely you’d have to say that would make us a much stronger side and put us in a position to be able to mount a realistic challenge for Champions League places without Lukaku and Barkley.

Sigurdsson has eleven assists and eight goals playing for Swansea this season, you’d think playing for a decent side those figures would only improve. I realise he divides opinion but Rooney still has goals in him, he’s won the lot at club level and I don’t buy into the ‘he’s past it” or ‘his legs have gone’ shouts. The close connection Koeman has with Van Dijk means signing him is a real possibility, insert your own choices but the point I’m making here is it wouldn’t be a disaster if both players left and we could easily end up with a stronger starting eleven for it.

I want Lukaku to stay at Everton but only if he wants to be here, no player is bigger than the club and let’s be honest, at the moment, he isn’t playing for the shirt, he’s playing for a move. Obviously as a club you want to keep your best players but if two of them want out then in my opinion you let them go for a price that suits Everton. Ultimately, Moshiri hasn’t thrown together some two bob plan that relies on Everton keeping hold of Barkley and Lukaku and if we do decide to sell, Everton could become stronger without them.

Do you agree with Craig? Comment below or have your say at www.theevertonforum.co.uk/forum

https://twitter.com/CraigHoyland1