The next Lukaku: Carragher urges Everton to sign £30m "wrecking ball"
Everton manager David Moyes is prepared to enforce sweeping changes this summer after guiding his team, hitherto imperilled, toward safety since re-joining in January.
Incomings will flood through the gates at some stage, but for now, some house-keeping. Ashley Young, Asmir Begovic and Abdoulaye Doucoure are among the first-teamers set to depart when their contracts expire next month.
The biggest presence, Doucoure, has done a lot for Everton, not least scoring against Bournemouth on the final day of the 2022/23 campaign to preserve the club’s long-sustained Premier League status, but he’s 33 next year and the top earner besides at £130k per week.
With Dwight McNeil and Charly Alcaraz in the fold (the latter should sign after his loan spell), number ten isn’t actually the priority position for Moyes though.
However, signing a new striker is definitely an urgent job for the Toffees as they step into the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Everton need a new striker
Dominic Calvert-Lewin is out of contract at the end of the season, but the 28-year-old striker has not been named as one of the outgoing players.
If Everton are to keep him on the books, it shouldn’t come at the expense of a fresh signing, for Calvert-Lewin has only scored three goals across 25 Premier League games this term.
Beto has been a man reborn under Moyes’ wing, but is still prone to some misfires and Armando Broja, whose loan spell at Goodison Park has been ruined by injury, will return to Chelsea after this weekend’s culminating fixture against Newcastle United.
Everton desperately need to sign a new number nine, having only scored 41 goals in the league this season; the three relegated sides are the only ones to have bagged fewer.
While it’s easier said than done, Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher believes one of English football’s most sought-after stars would be wise to make the move to Bramley-Moore Dock in the coming months.
Carragher urges Moyes to sign PL star
On Monday Night Football, following Liverpool’s defeat at Brighton, Carragher was critical of Ipswich Town striker Liam Delap’s potential transfer to Manchester United.
As per The Athletic, the 17th-place Red Devils have held executive meetings to determine whether a deal for the Englishman is feasible, with Chelsea also keen.
Moyes has been candid about his side’s own hopes of completing a move, and it’s something Carragher seems to agree with, believing the 22-year-old’s development would be best served in a talismanic berth on Merseyside.
Delap has a £30m release clause in his contract, which became active after the Tractor Boys’ relegation was sealed toward the end of April.
Though it’s been a pretty miserable campaign for Kieran McKenna’s newly-promoted team, Delap can hold his head high after scoring 12 goals from 32 starting appearances in the Premier League, praised as being “very strong” and a “powerful runner” by Newcastle boss Eddie Howe, who seems keen.
Delap’s physicality and natural-born clinical edge may well see him become Everton’s finest centre-forward in a long time, perhaps even since the days of Romelu Lukaku.
Lukaku joined Everton from Chelsea for £28m (a similar fee) in July 2014 after a successful season-long loan spell at the outfit, and though he’s plied a nomadic career for himself, the 32-year-old devoted four prolific campaigns to the Blues cause.
Delap differs from the well-known Lukaku, but he’s similarly brutish in applying his physicality, eager to outmuscle his opponents and marry that presence with a deceptive swiftness and a sharp shooting sense.
As you can see below, Delap has maintained a comparatively superior level of prolificness to Everton’s existing strikers, also matching a combativeness that can be observed through high numbers in the duel.
Matches (starts)
36 (32)
29 (14)
25 (19)
Goals
12
8
3
Assists
2
0
1
Goal conversion
18%
16%
6%
Shots (on target)*
1.9 (0.9)
1.6 (0.8)
1.9 (0.8)
Big chances missed
10
12
14
Pass completion
62%
58%
64%
Key passes*
0.6
0.3
0.3
Dribbles*
1.1
0.7
0.4
Duels won*
4.3
5.0
5.0
And, of course, he’s far more progressive in his ball-carrying, something perhaps more clearly underscored by data-led platform FBref, who record Delap to rank among the top 13% of strikers across Europe’s top five leagues this term for progressive carries and the top 8% for successful take-ons per 90.
Lukaku has been noted to ‘run like a wrecking ball’ by The Athletic’s Carl Anka in his heyday, and given the success Everton gleaned from the goal machine’s inward tactical database, extracting the raw quality of his skill set and building a team perfectly framed to promote his talent, Delap may well be curious at following suit to kick on over the next few years.
Given that the goalscorer used to be on Manchester City’s books as an academy player, a further similarity with Lukaku can be found, amid his initial stint at Chelsea. Let’s not forget too, the Belgian had one of the most fruitful spells of his storied career at Everton, posting 87 goals and 27 assists across 166 displays.
Described as a “wrecking ball” earlier in the campaign by Sky Sports’ Lewis Jones, just like Lukaku, Delap has what it takes to become a bona fide superstar in English football.
But would moving to Manchester be the most prudent for him right now? Old Trafford has proven to be a hotbed for stagnation and even regression over the past decade, and this is a player who needs balmy conditions so he can continue to foster his skills.
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