Everton ace hits a hat-trick as the press stick a pin in the Everton team sheet once more.
I have previously said quite a few times that things looked all wrong last season as our disjointed pre-season and lack of wins, as well as the general displays and fitness levels, seemed to take its toll. Well this season we’ve won three out of four (admittedly one was on penalties and we got hammered against Arsenal but still…) so I’ve got to be happier, yes?
Well, yes, I do stand by pre-season results giving a team confidence, and if we can get a win against Watford in the first league game that would give us a chance in the nightmare run of fixtures we’ve been given as I highlighted here.
Everyone got a good run-out yesterday in the 3-1 win over Hearts, who are well into pre-season mode, and despite two of the goals coming from the penalty spot the attacking display from Lukaku and Kone was something that Martinez pointed out as a big positive for the team. Baines and Oviedo coming back from injury is also great news for the squad.
Of course that didn’t stop the papers this morning immediately noticing that our striker had scored goals and that there was a sure-fire sign of impeding transfer on social media!!
It appears, according to the Independent, that a ‘cryptic message’ has been sent to Lukaku that would suggest that they will be linking up soon at United. That ‘cryptic message’? Well apparently a picture was put on Instagram by Depay of Manchester United who went on holiday with Rom this Summer. They are clearly good friends having come through the ranks with Belgium.
The message of “see you soon” could clearly mean that they are going to link up again at United. Or it could mean that they now live in the same area and might catch up for a BBQ or a film or whatever it is millionaire footballers do these days.
Of course I think there is nothing to this story purely based on the fact that we have no-one to replace Big Rom unless someone offered ‘funny money’. Starting a season with Kone and Naismith as our back-up strikers is, quite frankly, frightening. Martinez has said that he expects two more signings to come in at least but one will need to be a centre-back as we’ve not replaced Distin or Alcaraz yet. And let’s not even thnk about what we’d do if Stones really did go.
Apparently we’ve been linked with a lad from Celtic – Virgil Van Dijk – who is very good and we are watching to see if Celtic go through to the Champions League or not. Guess we have to hope that Stones and Jagielka stay fit for the first couple of weeks of the season at least then…
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