Everton’s track record Romelu Lukaku scored his first Premier League goal for the club ten years ago today.
It’s claimed that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but a decade after his first goal for the club, surely it’s time for any Romelu Lukaku skeptics out there to admit that he’s by far the best striker Everton have had in the Premier League era?
On September 21, 2013, a player who had joined the Blues on a season-long loan from Chelsea on transfer deadline day pushed his head in where it hurt to start his account for the club at the old Boleyn Ground. Lukaku therefore became the first Everton new boy since Alan Ball 47 years ago to score on his debut.
The Blues trailed 2-1 with seven minutes remaining against West Ham, but Leighton Baines equalized before Lukaku sealed a 3-2 triumph two minutes later. The Belgian demonstrated the kind of guts that Evertonians admire in their center-forwards by putting his head where it hurts and being knocked out in the process by Joey O’Brien.
“Seamus Coleman came to me and I said, ‘Who scored?'” Rom remembered. He said, “You did!”
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The goal also kicked off an incredible hot streak for Lukaku against the Hammers, as he scored in all nine games he played against them for Everton. It wasn’t just West Ham who benefited from his finishing abilities, as he went on to score 87 goals in 166 games for the Blues (better than a goal every other game for a long time), including a club record 68 in the Premier League.
Lukaku scored 20 goals in three straight seasons in all competitions, including 26 in his final season at Goodison Park, 25 of which came in the Premier League. That is more than double the 60 goals scored by Everton’s previous top Premier League scorer Duncan Ferguson in 239 appearances.
FA Cup victor Ferguson, who came on as a substitute in the 1995 final win over Manchester United, is justifiably regarded as a Gwladys Street icon, and he shared a passion for the Blues with fans who flocked to him from the stands, although he only reached double figures twice in 11 seasons, over two stays. Regrettably, when it comes to challenging Lukaku’s title, there isn’t much serious competition.
Tim Cahill (56) is third on Everton’s Premier League goalscoring list, largely as an offensive midfielder, while current striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin is fourth with 47, a couple ahead of Kevin Campbell. Ferguson’s Wembley teammate Paul Rideout, the match-winner for Joe Royle’s ‘Dogs of War,’ enters the top ten with 29 goals, level with Baines and Kevin Mirallas and one ahead of Tony Cottee.
Ayegbeni Yakubu and Wayne Rooney’s brief contributions are reflected in a five-way tie for 15th place with 25 goals each, alongside Marouane Fellaini, Tomasz Radzinski, and Gylfi Sigurdsson. This correspondent isn’t claiming that Lukaku is Goodison’s favorite son; far too often, this intelligent polyglot blotted his copybook with a loose tongue when it came to discussing potential next moves while on international duty, misdeeds that couldn’t all be blamed on being lost in translation.
However, in terms of what he contributed, he was head and shoulders above any other frontman to have worn the royal blue jersey over the past three decades, including more gifted individuals such as the aforementioned Rooney, whose best years were at Manchester United in between two spells at Everton that proved to be brief bookends to his Premier League careers, or Samuel Eto’o, whose best days were behind him by the time he briefly became Lukaku’s team-mate on Merseyside Yet, for some reason, some Blues continue to downplay his on-field abilities, pointing out a poor first touch or criticizing him for not running around as much as Denis Stracqualursi.
Like many Goodison graduates, Lukaku’s achievements are now appearing even better through the rose-tinted lenses of nostalgia, but much of that is likely due to Everton’s current goal drought. Chris Sutton pushed Sean Dyche and Kevin Thelwell to make an audacious transfer bid to bring the now 30-year-old back to the Blues earlier this summer, when he was struggling to find a new club.
“Lukaku, go get Lukaku,” he said. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Lukaku.”
In truth, given Everton’s financial predicament as they are left counting the cost of the profligacy that Farhad Moshiri has admitted to – which mostly began with their squandering of the £75million fee they received from Manchester United for Lukaku in 2017 – any return of the man from Antwerp to Goodison Park was always going to be ‘Fantasy Football.’ While Dyche’s team had just one chance on goal in their 1-0 home loss to Arsenal on Sunday, Lukaku was hammering in his first goal for Roma in a 7-0 romp against Empoli, and you can anticipate much more of that from him coming season.
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