Tony Cascarino criticises Everton’s decision to sell Romelu Lukaku.
Former Chelsea player-turned-pundit Tony Cascarino has criticized Everton’s decision to sell Romelu Lukaku this summer.
Ronald Koeman has signed several good players this summer, but Cascarino feels that the “most significant” bit of business they did was of selling Lukaku.
Everton sold Lukaku, the club’s top scorer last season, to Manchester United, and Cascarino feels that it was a terrible decision taken by the club.
Lukaku made it clear that he won’t continue playing for Everton before his move, but Cascarino says that the club should not have sold him.
He says that Liverpool, Arsenal, and Southampton have done extremely well in keeping hold of Philippe Coutinho, Alexis Sanchez, and Virgil van Dijk, respectively, despite these players wanted to move elsewhere this summer.
Cascarino believes that Everton didn’t even get the market rate for the Belgian striker. Give his age, potential and quality, Everton should have sold him for more than £75 million, according to the pundit.
He also labelled the decision to use more than half of the money on Gylfi Sigurdsson, as “madness”.
“Never mind all the signings that they made this summer, the most significant bit of business that Everton did was selling Romelu Lukaku,” said Cascarino to The Times. “What a terrible decision that was. The recent transfer window proved that you don’t have to sell your best players, even if they want out.
“I would argue, given his talent, potential and importance to Everton, that Lukaku is worth more than either Sánchez or Coutinho and yet not only did they sell him, it now seems that Everton didn’t even get the market rate for the Belgium striker.
“Even if they had fought to keep him a little longer, then Neymar’s move to Paris Saint-Germain for nearly £200 million would have seen Lukaku’s price double. Instead they got £75 million for their best player and spent more than half of it on Gylfi Sigurdsson — that seemed like madness to me at the time and looks even worse now.”
Everton lost 4-0 to Manchester United on Sunday – their fourth defeat in a row.
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