Lukaku could stay at Everton - according to David Prentice

David Prentice: Will Lukaku be more than a holiday romance?
4 Oct 2013 12:33

Striker looks set to leave, but who knows what football magic can bring



Evertonians can be a passionate lot. And watching Romelu Lukaku at the moment is a little like the bitter sweet sensation of a holiday romance.

It’s exciting, intriguing, sets the heart racing – but you know it’s not going to last.

In just two brief appearances Everton’s on-loan young striker has already looked like that rarest of beasts – a proper Everton number nine.

He boasts pace, power, touch, tactical awarenesss – and a voracious appetite for goals.

Which is why a club with pockets as deep as Chelsea’s holds his registration and he is likely to head back there next spring.

But football can change in a heartbeat.

Goals change games – and careers too.

And a goal thundered into the Gwladys Street net seven games into the loan spell of another Everton centre-forward changed his career for good and ignited a love affair which shows no signs of fading even today.

Duncan Ferguson joined Everton in October 1994 (no transfer window to worry about then) to escape the goldfish bowl of Glasgow with an SFA charge hanging over his head.

A few hours after his debut at Portsmouth, when he sat on a hotel couch with his ankle heavily strapped and iced, I asked him: “Do you think you’ll stay longer than three-months?”

“I wouldnae thought so,” he shrugged.

A month later something changed when he walked off that Goodison Park pitch with adoring Evertonians hanging from his arms and shoulders.

He’s still here now, cherished by Blues fans of a certain vintage, sporting a tattoo of the club crest on his shoulder – and now making a significant impact as a forward thinking coach.

Roberto Martinez has already spoken of the “terrific chemistry” between Lukaku and the Everton fans.

Who knows where this “holiday romance” may go?