He didn't.
Romelu Lukaku makes pledge to Everton fans after letting his mind wander last year
ROMELU LUKAKU has promised Everton fans he will not repeat the mistake of last season by allowing his focus to drift to a possible future away from Goodison.
By
GIDEON BROOKS
PUBLISHED: 22:30, Sun, Feb 5, 2017
The striker hinted he was guilty of letting his mind wander in the previous campaign as some of Europe’s biggest names cast their eye in his direction.
And while an outstanding display of forward play as Everton routed Bournemouth on Saturday will have sent alerts ringing all over Europe – and nowhere louder than at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge – he insisted he is fully committed to Everton’s long-term project.
“I’m just focused on this period of time and I don’t want to look ahead too far,” he said. “That is the mistake I made last year. I was focusing already ahead and looking forward to things in front instead of the present.
“Now for me it is just game after game, day after day. Improve, come in, do my job and then go home to rest, work again on my body to recover and make sure I can play the next game. It is day by day now.”
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Romelu Lukaku scored four in Everton's 6-3 win over Bournemouth yesterday
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Lukaku is now the Premier League's leading goalscorer
‘World class’ is a phrase too loosely tossed around in football and with respect to what was a spirited second-half display from shell-shocked visitors at Goodison, this was Bournemouth not Brazil.
But if a performance from one player ever warranted the accolade the centre-forward display from the Belgium international against the Cherries here was it.
Lukaku, still just 23, was on a higher level to almost everyone else on the pitch and to his four goals – a left-foot curling shot from distance after 30 seconds, quick feet for a balletic dink, a measured volley after a one-two, and a rampaging blast – he added one brilliant assist.
It was the perfect performance and one which took him to the top of the Premier League scoring chart with 16 goals, for all that Lukaku maintained it made it only into the top three of his career.
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Ronald Koeman's side are just five points adrift of the European places
“It is in the top three, but not number one and two,” he said. “It is third because my debut was the most important. To be a professional that was great and then my first goal because that is when my life changed.”
Lukaku signed a fresh five-year deal in December worth £100,000 a week making him Everton’s most highly rewarded player. But the £80million buyout clause inserted was as important if he keeps this up.
That said, if a top-six finish for the Toffees was as good as they could have hoped for at one stage with Everton charging and six points between them and fourth place, who knows?
Shortly after Ross Barkley had put through Lukaku for his fourth goal, news that Liverpool had conceded a second – to an on loan Everton player as well – against Hull filtered through on smartphones. The buzz notched up as well it might given that it is their Stanley Park neighbours who sit those six points ahead.
That will not concern Lukaku, who was keeping his focus on today’s training and Middlesbrough at the weekend. But he did allow himself a small glimpse forward when pressed.
“The most important thing is to make sure that the team ends as high as possible. We have the aim for the top six,” he said. “We are really close and I have to deliver for my team.”
For Bournemouth this was a weird afternoon: one-nil down inside a minute, blown away by Lukaku and yet drawing the second half 3-3. Perhaps understandably Eddie Howe seemed inclined to mark it down as an outlier.
“Lukaku produced a performance of the highest quality but things are just not going our way at the moment,” he said. “We need to be very strong mentally and come back from this.”
With 26 points, Howe’s side are six above the relegation zone and shipping too many goals – 34 in their last 13 games – but should be alright given their efforts from earlier in the season.
