Cal
Player Valuation: £40m
Wednesday 29th August 2007, The Yak or Yakubu signed in at Everton for a club record transfer fee of £11.25 million.
Yakubu has always been known as a player who will put the ball in the back of the net, but a lot of Evertonians had their doubts over Yakubu fitting into David Moyes Everton team.
Yak hadn’t exactly been known to put 100% effort in every game for Boro but he usually put the ball into the back of the net for them.
So switch your mind back to the Bolton game at the Reebok Stadium in September.
10 minutes in, Andy Johnson skips away from a wild challenge from a Bolton defender and sprints clear, Yakubu making a delightful run to take the defender away to Johnson to let Johnson put Yakubu in with a one on one chance to score for the blues, bang, and 1-0 to Everton.
Evertonians and Yakubu are in dream land, everyone had thought they had finally found a brilliant striking partnership in heaven and a player who will regularly put the ball in the net for Everton.
But it wasn’t exactly like that; Yakubu quickly had the Goodison crowd on his back in his first couple of months with the blues.
A lot of people were questioning his ability and especially his work rate to fit into the Everton team.
Yak and rightly so got dropped for the away game against Aston Villa after some poor games for Everton and a lot of people were questioning not only the player himself but the manager who brought him to Goodison.
Yakubu finally got on the scoresheet in the carling cup game against Sheffield Wednesday but delight turned to despair for him and the fans and after poor showings against Middlesbrough and Metalist, he was dropped again for the away game against Newcastle.
Yak was called up the game after in the Merseyside derby game against Liverpool where he showed glimpses of finally settling into the Everton side.
Although Everton lost 2-1 to some terrible refereeing against Liverpool, Yakubu’s performance was a positive to take from the game.
Yakubu’s next goal came in the first league game after the crazy Merseyside derby, it was against strugglers Derby and he quickly looked much more capable on the ball and put in a hard working shift and also found the back of the net with a brilliant finish.
And hasn’t Yak and Evertonians not looked back since then?
Yak scored again against Birmingham in a 3-1 win and put in a brilliant shift in the UEFA cup group game against Nuremburg, he not only looked comfortable on the ball and involved with some great football for the blues but put in a very hard working performance, which has shown how far he has come since he joined the toffees.
He then got a double in the ‘game of the season’ so far for the blues in the 7-1 win against Sunderland.
3 games later he got his first hat-trick or Yak-trick for Everton against Fulham with a ‘perfect’ hat-trick.
He also grabbed a last minute winner at Upton Park in the Carling Cup quarter final to send Everton in the semi final which sparked wild scenes by fans at Upton Park, what a night.
Since then he has not looked back and grabbed another 6 goals including another hat-trick against Brann in the UEFA cup and a belter in the League cup semi final at Stamford Bridge.
Yak has combined not only work rate which has been installed in his game but great ability on the ball, linking up brilliantly with Osman, Pienaar, Arteta and Cahill in a 4-5-1 formation which has served Everton so brilliantly this season.
And also having that brilliant ability to put every chance away.
And it’s not only credit to the striker himself but to David Moyes for changing him into a ‘Moyes’ type of player, when many people had their doubts over whether Yak could do this.
Could this be our best striker since Gary Lineker?
Not only do blues have a new hero but they have a player who has all the attributes to be a legend in the making for Everton, I’m certainly looking forward to seeing his final goalscoring tally which could even surpass his squad number 22.
Feed the Yak and he will score, and isn’t this so true.
Article by GOT member - Cal
Yakubu has always been known as a player who will put the ball in the back of the net, but a lot of Evertonians had their doubts over Yakubu fitting into David Moyes Everton team.
Yak hadn’t exactly been known to put 100% effort in every game for Boro but he usually put the ball into the back of the net for them.
So switch your mind back to the Bolton game at the Reebok Stadium in September.
10 minutes in, Andy Johnson skips away from a wild challenge from a Bolton defender and sprints clear, Yakubu making a delightful run to take the defender away to Johnson to let Johnson put Yakubu in with a one on one chance to score for the blues, bang, and 1-0 to Everton.
Evertonians and Yakubu are in dream land, everyone had thought they had finally found a brilliant striking partnership in heaven and a player who will regularly put the ball in the net for Everton.
But it wasn’t exactly like that; Yakubu quickly had the Goodison crowd on his back in his first couple of months with the blues.
A lot of people were questioning his ability and especially his work rate to fit into the Everton team.
Yak and rightly so got dropped for the away game against Aston Villa after some poor games for Everton and a lot of people were questioning not only the player himself but the manager who brought him to Goodison.
Yakubu finally got on the scoresheet in the carling cup game against Sheffield Wednesday but delight turned to despair for him and the fans and after poor showings against Middlesbrough and Metalist, he was dropped again for the away game against Newcastle.
Yak was called up the game after in the Merseyside derby game against Liverpool where he showed glimpses of finally settling into the Everton side.
Although Everton lost 2-1 to some terrible refereeing against Liverpool, Yakubu’s performance was a positive to take from the game.
Yakubu’s next goal came in the first league game after the crazy Merseyside derby, it was against strugglers Derby and he quickly looked much more capable on the ball and put in a hard working shift and also found the back of the net with a brilliant finish.
And hasn’t Yak and Evertonians not looked back since then?
Yak scored again against Birmingham in a 3-1 win and put in a brilliant shift in the UEFA cup group game against Nuremburg, he not only looked comfortable on the ball and involved with some great football for the blues but put in a very hard working performance, which has shown how far he has come since he joined the toffees.
He then got a double in the ‘game of the season’ so far for the blues in the 7-1 win against Sunderland.
3 games later he got his first hat-trick or Yak-trick for Everton against Fulham with a ‘perfect’ hat-trick.
He also grabbed a last minute winner at Upton Park in the Carling Cup quarter final to send Everton in the semi final which sparked wild scenes by fans at Upton Park, what a night.
Since then he has not looked back and grabbed another 6 goals including another hat-trick against Brann in the UEFA cup and a belter in the League cup semi final at Stamford Bridge.
Yak has combined not only work rate which has been installed in his game but great ability on the ball, linking up brilliantly with Osman, Pienaar, Arteta and Cahill in a 4-5-1 formation which has served Everton so brilliantly this season.
And also having that brilliant ability to put every chance away.
And it’s not only credit to the striker himself but to David Moyes for changing him into a ‘Moyes’ type of player, when many people had their doubts over whether Yak could do this.
Could this be our best striker since Gary Lineker?
Not only do blues have a new hero but they have a player who has all the attributes to be a legend in the making for Everton, I’m certainly looking forward to seeing his final goalscoring tally which could even surpass his squad number 22.
Feed the Yak and he will score, and isn’t this so true.
Article by GOT member - Cal
