Why Ademola Lookman’s Charlton Athletic omission is good news for Everton

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The 19-year-old was left out of the starting XI at the weekend.

Karl Robinson knows a thing or two about helping young, British talents ascend from the relative depths of League One and make their name at the top of the English game.

Its two years since Tottenham Hotspur plucked a dynamic teenage midfielder by the name of Dele Alli from Robinson’s then club MK Dons and, in the upcoming month, his new employers Charlton Athletic look certain to bid farewell to 19-year-old winger Ademola Lookman.

According to the BBC, Lookman will make the transition from the third tier to the first in January with Everton ready to pay £10 million for the services of a player who has scored seven times in 25 appearances in all competitions this season.

Coming just six months after The Toffees snapped up Sheffield United starlet Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Director of Football Steve Walsh is beginning to demonstrate the astute transfer nous that turned Leicester City into Premier League champions.

And such is Lookman’s talents that Robinson was willing to leave him out of Charlton’s recent league clash with The Blades for his own good. Apparently rugged lower league defenders don’t take too well to being bamboozled by a fresh-faced 19-year-old.

“[Lookman] could have left in the summer and he chose to stay,” Robinson said in quotes reported by the Liverpool Echo. “I had the same thing with Dele Alli.

“He turned down a few moves in one window and it got to Christmas and the kid was so scared of tackles.

“He became a marked man, I saw players purposely try to kick him. I’ve moaned since day one about him needed protection. I can’t watch a kid’s dream go.

“The fans have stuck by in thick and thin and we have to stick by the kid through this as well. He’s an outstanding talent for the country. I felt it was right to not involve him in the squad.”

Rarely has a player been dropped from the starting line-up because of positive performances. And if resorting kicking and cowardly fouling is the only way to stop Lookman at full-flow, Everton know they are getting a player with considerable talent.