Everton's Romelu Lukaku won't see club-record £28m price-tag as a burden claims boss Martinez
The 21-year-old "is one of the best players in world football" and will spearhead Toffees' Europa League campaign after making loan from Chelsea permanent
Young gun: Lukaku's goal tally at 21 beats those of Messi, Ronaldo, Aguero and Rooney
Roberto Martinez has described £28million Romelu Lukaku as one of the best young players in the world.
The Everton boss has also admitted his team were not ready for the Champions League after narrowly missing out on a top four finish last season.
Lukaku will instead spearhead the club in the Europa League but Martinez is confident that the marksman derided by Jose Mourinho will continue proving that the Toffees are on the way up.
The 21-year-old scored 16 goals on loan at Goodison last season and Martinez said: “For me, at 21, Lukaku is one of the best players in world football.
“That is not me saying it with a bias, the stats show it - the amount of goals he has scored at a young age. Everything he has as a striker is exactly what we wanted, long term. So that is a real success.
“Sometimes you spend a big amount on a player and that puts massive, massive pressure on him because he has to settle in and fulfil expectations. With Romelu it is almost the opposite, it is about allowing him to be more confident and happier because we showed incredible faith."
Everton blew the chance to finish in the Champions League places for only the second time last season.
Their 72-point tally, however, surpassed anything achieved David Moyes and Martinez believes European football’s elite competition would have come too soon for the club anyway.
He added: “Our campaign was worthy of Champions League football and that is what we can work on.
“If I am honest, going into the Europa League is probably more what we need, rather than going straight into the Champions League and not being ready for it.
“To experience the Europa League is going to tell us a lot about where we are and how ready we are. But the ultimate aim of getting into the Champions League will always be there.”
Martinez has also likened Ross Barkley to Wayne Rooney and believes the 20-year-old midfielder is ready to step up a gear this season.
The Spaniard, whose side open their campaign at Leicester on Saturday, said: “Ross always sees Wayne as an incredible figure, obviously as an Evertonian growing and there things that take you back to what Wayne was doing as a young man.
“But they are very much different although I do think they could play together. That doesn’t mean I’m saying anything!
Boss Barkley: Martinez is full of praise for Everton's "incredible" young midfielder
“Ross is an incredible character. I have never seen someone so well balanced after being involved in the World Cup. He hasn’t changed in training, if anything it is the opposite. He wants to be even more focused and humble.
“I think he is quite a unique talent, I don’t think we have had one like that for many generations, never mind for many years because it’s quite rare to find someone who is so technically gifted, but then has got the physicality to go with it, then the personality - someone emotionally is very, very composed.
“Those three aspects you don’t get them together in one player, especially at that age.”
