Just like Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool before them, Everton have failed to deal with the departure of their star man.
Paulinho, Vlad Chiriches, Roberto Soldado and Etienne Capoue aren’t quite as revered in the world of football as John, Paul, George and Ringo are in the world of music. It’s fair to say the phrase ‘sold Elvis and bought the Beatles’ (as famously offered by BBC pundit and former Spur, Garth Crooks – via Sky Sports) doesn’t exactly do one of the most famous and influential bands in pop history much justice.
Yet, it has become a rather casual expression wheeled out when a club cashes in on their star man and subsequently signs a plethora of lesser names in the hope that a whole bunch of good players is just as effective as one stand-alone star.
Tottenham Hotspur did it when scrambling around to spend the world record £86 million they received for the sale of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid in 2013, per the BBC. Just four months into the following season, manager Andre Villas-Boas was shown the door with barely any of his signings making a positive impression.
Liverpool, too, did the same when attempting to replicate the influence of Luis Suarez just weeks after he so nearly nearly inspired them to a first ever Premier League title.
Mario Balotelli and Rickie Lambert managed just three league goals between them, however, while Lazar Markovic left a lot to be desired. As such, Liverpool dropped from second place to sixth.
And the early signs are that Merseyside rivals Everton have fallen into an almost identical trap. After all, it’s fair to say putting Sandro Ramirez and Wayne Rooney together does not equal one Romelu Lukaku.
The Toffees have also replaced their talismanic goalscorer with a plethora of creators – just like Spurs did when Bale left a gaping void in their attack four years ago.
With Everton toiling at the wrong end of the Premier League, their new signings struggling to gel and Ronald Koeman under huge pressure, you wonder whether history is repeating itself once again.
Lukaku has left the building, and Everton need to find some way to cope with that fact.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
