Graeme Souness believes Romelu Lukaku could replace Diego Costa.
Newcastle manager Graeme Souness
Former Liverpool midfielder and now turned football pundit, Graeme Souness believes that Everton striker Romelu Lukaku would be a good addition to the squad.
Souness says that there isn’t a like for like replacement for Costa out there, as all the top strikers are different from each other.
Indeed he is right. The likes of Sergio Aguero or Alexis Sanches are both great strikers, but they bring different qualities to their respective teams.
Writing his column for The Times, Souness says that Chelsea could bring Lukaku, their former player back at the club – a similar approach to what Manchester United have done in bringing Paul Pogba at the club by paying an inflated price.
Chelsea’s Diego Costa scores their first goal
“Chelsea could go and get Romelu Lukaku from Everton. That would be doing a Manchester United with Paul Pogba last summer and going back and paying an inflated price for somebody you allowed to leave,” writes Souness for The Times.
According to reports from The Sun, Everton would demand a transfer fee in the region of £100 million for the player (that means breaking the transfer record) who has scored 24 Premier League goals this season.
Matching his transfer fee won’t be a problem if Antonio Conte feels that Lukaku is the right player for him. Souness adds that Lukaku is an obvious choice to replace Costa, because he runs forward and has a real physical presence.
Souness, however, is concerned with Lukaku’s record against big teams, with the striker having scored just four goals in his last 34 games against the current top six.
“The question mark is that he doesn’t score against the big teams — he has managed just four goals from his last 34 games against the current top six. Is that because he’s playing at Everton? And would it change if he went back to Chelsea?,” he added.
Everton’s Romelu Lukaku
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