According to a report published by a research group in Switzerland this week, Everton striker Romelu Lukaku is rated the 24th most valuable player in Europe, with the 21 year old being given a price tag of €39.7 million. Our other starlet, Ross Barkley was also given an impressive position in the table, coming in as the 42nd most valuable player, with an estimated worth of €33.6million ranking him higher than the likes of Manchester City’s Yaya Toure and Spaniard Santi Cazorla.
The body that ran the report, the Football Observatory, is a research group from the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) with staff ‘specialised in the statistical analysis of football.’ Having been founded in 2005, they have undertaken research for FIFA and UEFA, as well as several top-flight European clubs.
This particular document claims to use a selection of ‘key indicators’ – such as age, position, contract, achievements, international status and performance – to list the 100 most expensive players in the world. Despite it seeming that there is a few arguable positions in this table, the facts do speak for themselves and it should be taken seriously.
This table just furthers the embarrassment of last season: how can a club with two players in this table finish in the bottom half of the league? I think that this extends the idea that Martinez should base his squad on the spine of Stones, McCarthy, Barkley and Lukaku. Also despite not agreeing with Lukaku’s recent outbursts, the Belgian is right that he should not play on the wing. We’ve finally for a club record fee of £28million signed a striker after years of quite frankly mid table at best performers up front, and therefore Lukaku should be played in his position. The fact that we are the only team with players in this table to not be competing in Europe next season should have Evertonians asking some serious questions.
