Why Everton should target Batshuayi

Bat-shuayi out of hell?

After Romelu Lukaku rejected Everton’s new contract offer this week, the club must now plan for his eventual departure.

Contrary to common opinion, Lukaku’s exit is not necessarily a bad thing for the club. While he undoubtedly has a lot of natural qualities, there have been question marks too: his application, work rate, teamwork, first touch, vision, ability to use both feet.

Some of those boxes would be ticked by another powerful striker Michy Batshuayi. With deep-pocketed Chelsea being Lukaku’s most likely suitors, the Everton board should sense an opportunity. They could gain an expensive transfer fee for Lukaku with Batshuayi moving up the M6 in exchange, which could be a master-stroke.

The only downside to the Standard Liege trainee, in comparison with Lukaku, is that he is not a proven Premier League goalscorer. Four of his five Chelsea goals have come in cup competitions against Football League opposition. However, the fact he has scored five goals for the West Londoners looks impressive when one considers that he has played just 502 minutes of football.

Of 21 appearances, just five have been starts, all of which in cup competitions and all of his substitute appearances have been shorter than 20 minutes. With Diego Costa in outstanding form, Batshuayi would expect to be a back-up, but currently he is not part of Antonio Conte’s first contingency plan.

When Costa was suspended for the Boxing Day encounter with Bournemouth, or when he had a training ground confrontation with Conte before January’s trip to Leicester, Batshuayi was not trusted to start. His boss favoured Eden Hazard in the false nine role with Willian slotting in on the left of the front three and both times that move resulted in a 3-0 victory.

When results are going badly, the question is normally ‘why is the manager undervaluing player X?’. When results are going well, the question is ‘what is player X doing wrong for the manager not to use him?’. In Chelsea’s case, the power is entirely with Conte because his neglect of Batshuayi is vindicated by the results.

The ex-Marseille man has had to remain patient and professional, knuckling down in training while supporting his manager on social media. However, he is too good a player to approach his 24th birthday next year as a third-choice striker.

For that reason, an exchange move to Everton and helping them push for a European spot with regular game time could be what he needs. For the Toffees, he could be the next prolific Belgian goalscorer.