He left Everton an optimistic child who was being convinced he would be star. He returns to Everton a washed up has-been who never came near the promise folks piled on him.
Just in summary about all this doom and gloom, let me tell you what my beef is. We have a CL qualifier in August, a game we seem utterly blase that we'll stroll through. The team that staggered over the line into fourth place in May shouldn't be regarded as certs for anything, especially as our best player is coming back off an ACL injury. Surely the idea was to get as many targets in for pre-season so that they're playing as a team by then? Obviously that was the plan with VVD as well as Salah, but we still haven't got a left back yet? Really? It's irrelevant what the ****e and Uniturd are doing, in relation to us anyway. Just as an independent issue in its own right, regardless of what anyone else is doing, are we playing bluff with clubs like Leipzig and Soton that'll take us right to the deadline? Not much point 'winning' these poker games if we're collect our chips after we're out of the CL.
i'm not all doom & gloom but i'm staggered that the club seem completely untroubled by the fact that we have no LB. My constant LB comments were originally a joke but here we are with pre season training started & yet we have not even started negotiations yet if the rumours are correct .
hahaha, a goal scoring ratio of nearly 1 in 2 in his career at United, their all time scoring record, Englands all time record scorer, 5 league tites, 4 domestic cups, a CL and EL winners medal and numerous individual awards - yeah mate, his career has been a complete flop
He certainly hasn't been a complete flop, he has been very successful but there was talk for many years that he would be one of the greatest players ever. I think it's fair to say in that respect he hasn't lived up to his expectations.
He's been playing in an era when we've seen 2 of the greatest players to ever play the game in their pomp. He doesn't come close to either, but that doesn't mean that he's not fulfilled his initial promise, as his record clearly shows that he has.
How is this not tapping up? Lukaku: "I knew from the interest of #mufc for about a year and a half. I've spoke to the manager plenty of times." [nbc]
He played in a United that was one of the most successful teams in history, of course he won stuff. He was overshadowed by Giggs, RVN, Scholes, Ronaldo, Ferdinand, etc. I'm not saying he was a terrible player. He's been better than average most of his career. However, with that said, he's been nowhere near the superstar world beater he was touted to be. He's never even been the best player at his own club. He's "England famous" but you wouldn't have Real Madrid or Barcelona knocking on the door for him. At no point would he have made a world XI, even as a substitute. Truth be told, most of his time with England he shouldn't have been playing. He didn't come close to the hype he was billed with and has been impotent now for a few years. Yeah, he's been a better than average player but way over hyped. Way over ranked. He's not even in the top 5 United players during his tenure there.
Think Rooney, in his early 20's, was one of the best ENGLISH players of his generation, but nothing special by European/Latin American standards. He isn't a natural athlete, like, say, Ronaldo, and he can't take injuries like Suarez. His body seems to be falling to bits now maybe too much football too young like Owen? Still, when he was 17/18 I was wishing he'd follow the same path as fellow childhood blues like Rush, Macca and Fowler. I think Everton getting him back now has shades of us getting Fowler back, but that's their business. Seems more of a commercial decision than anything else, but Koeman is wily enough, in my book, to know what he's doing.
Off the top of my head: Ronaldo, Van Persie, Scholes, Rio, RVN, Giggs i would say were all better and higher rated than him.
