A lot of question marks were raised about striker Romelu Lukaku after he decided to leave a top club like Chelsea for a move to Everton, who are often involved in the fight to qualify for the Europa League. Chelsea manager José Mourinho appeared to hint that the striker was not ready to fight for his place at a big club like Chelsea with many top players. He said that Lukaku moved to Everton largely because he would be a big fish in a small pond. The striker cost an incredible £ 28 million and has started in every Premier League match so far.
After recently opening his account for Everton since the move in the win over West Brom during the weekend, Lukaku is expected to kick on. Goalkeeper Tim Howard has rejected suggestions that the 21-year-old striker is not hungry enough. Contrary to those suggestions, Howard says that Lukaku is the kind of an individual who likes to celebrate goals scored even in training. It is widely known that the Belgian international spends a lot of time analysing his game. Howard says that he is aware that Lukaku wants to become one of the best players in the world.
The striker has scored roughly one goal every other game in the last two years at West Brom and Everton. “He wants to be the best footballer in the world, he really does. That’s what he thinks of himself. He gets his head down and he works, and we push him. He’s electric, he’s alive, he celebrates goals in training, everything counts to him. Everything matters. That’s what you want to see. There are too many young kids that take it for granted. Romelu doesn’t. He cost a lot of money but he is not arrogant, he is hungry,” said Howard.

Roberto Martinez believes that Ross Barkley is very different from the other young players around. According to the Everton boss, the 20-year old defender is not someone who will let himself carried away by the fame and money.

Barkley has recently been given a contract extension by Everton and he has got a big hike in his weekly salary too. He is believed to be getting 50 thousand Pounds per week from this season onwards.

Normally, when the young players start being paid high, their head get turned very easily. They get deviated from their actual path. It has happened with many youngsters in the past. But, Martinez seems to be quite sure that it’s not going to happen with Barkley.

Talking to the reporters about Barkley the other day, Martinez said, “I am not worried about him. He knows his priorities pretty well. Yes, he is only 20 and most of the players find it hard to keep their focus on the game at this age especially if they are getting fame, but, Ross is not like the other young boys. He is calm, composed and a family man. He resides with his mother and is leading a balanced life.”

“Not only temperament wise, Ross is fantastic skill wise too. He is very quick on the pitch and he is blessed with the physical strength as well. There are not too many players in the world that’s got both these qualities.”

Barkley has been at Everton since the age of 11. He made his debut for the senior team in 2010, but, he used to play only a few matches here and there until the 2012-13 Season. It’s in the last season that he established his place in the starting XI of the toffees.

The playmaker featured for Everton in more than 30 matches in the league in the 2013-14 Season.

The manager of Everton FC, Roberto Martinez, reckons that Gareth Barry is exactly the kind of playmaker he needs to sign, but, he doesn’t want to rush into anything to get that deal done. He is prepared to wait patiently.

Barry was originally a player of Manchester City in the last season, but, he had played for Everton on loan and he had performed pretty well there.

This summer, Barry is a free agent as he has been released by City. Now, Everton wants to secure his services on a permanent basis, but, the veteran midfielder is taking his time to reach any conclusion. He is believed to have been approached by the other clubs as well and he is just looking into the offers at this point of time.

According to Martinez, he knows that during the World Cup, things tend to get slowed down especially the transfer activities. So, he is not concerned about the Barry situation at all.

Speaking in one of his interviews recently, the Everton boss said, “During the World Cups, the transfer activities don’t get processed as fast as they usually do. So, I am not bothered at this point of time. Yes, we do want to have Gareth’s services as he is a wonderful player and great human being, but, I am ready to wait.”

“Each and every person over here including me was very impressed with Gareth’s attitude last season. He is in our plans, but, we will have to see what decision he makes. We would try our best to convince him to spend a few more years at Everton.”

Barry who is 33 years of age has a huge amount of experience. He has been playing in the premier league since the last one and half decades.

Everton manager Roberto Martinez has stated that the some of the process of the upcoming summer transfer recruiting is almost over. He says that the club have finally agreed on the players that they would be looking to sign in the transfer window, which opens on July 1. Everton are likely to be spending around £ 20 million in the summer, which is peanuts compared to the likes of Tottenham and Liverpool have already spent. Martinez will be aware that the club has limited budget, but he is looking at various alternatives in order to strengthen the squad.

One of the ways includes getting place on loan deals just like they did last summer. This was highly beneficial for all parties involved as the likes of Gareth Barry and Romelu Lukaku not only got arrival of first-team action, but they also proved crucial in Everton finishing fifth in the table. Despite getting a record 72 points, they could only manage a fifth-place finish. Just when it seems that Martinez could not improve this even further, the Spaniard is looking to sign a couple of players in almost every area of the pitch to strengthen the team.

It is expected that Everton will open negotiations with the targets after the World Cup 2014.

“Recruitment is vital. It’s one of those moments of the season where you recollect the good work you’ve done over the last two windows. The recruitment department have been working tirelessly to get the reports and highlight the targets and players that are going to fit in our football club. You can imagine it’s a long process. We’ve identified the players and now it’s about making sure we can get them to join,” said the Everton manager.

It is believed that Everton are in discussions with Chelsea for a permanent transfer of Lukaku.

Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku has been a major reason behind Everton qualifying for the Champions League. The striker has been on loan at Everton from the start of the season. As he has done with West Brom last campaign, Lukaku has scored a number of goals in the league. His strikes against the likes of Manchester city and Arsenal have proven to be very important indeed. Manager Roberto Martinez has expressed on several occasions that he would like to keep the Belgian striker on a permanent basis.

Initially, it was thought that Chelsea would be reluctant to part company with the 20-year-old, who has been likened as the next Didier Drogba. However, there seems to have been a major shift within the transfer policy of Jose Mourinho. Lukaku has been linked with moves to Everton and Tottenham in the last few months. A pricetag of around £ 20 million has been placed on his head, which would make him as one of the priciest youngsters in the world. Martinez accepts that this price may increase if the 20-year-old has a good World Cup.

Lukaku will be the first choice for the Belgian national team to the injury for Aston Villa striker Christian Benteke. Despite the misfiring strikers at Chelsea, the club looks set to sell the Belgian International in the summer.
“I don’t think that’s my worry. The worry would be that if the deal was a cheap one, it would be because he has had a torrid time and hasn’t fulfilled his potential. We are too close to Romelu to hope he has a poor tournament. We hope he has a really good World Cup – and then decides to come to us. We’ll see what’s the best thing for everyone but everything will be in stages: how Chelsea are doing in their own squad and how that frees some players,” said Martinez.

Everton took a massive step towards qualifying for the Champions League next season after they finished as 3-0 winners over Arsenal in the latest Premier league match between the two teams.

Everton had their destiny in their own hands due to matches against the likes of Arsenal at home. Their four points behind the gunners prior to this match, but have now closed the gap to just one point.

Further, they have a game in hand, which could potentially see them move into the top four ahead of Arsenal.

Everton have finished in the top four only once in the last decade and it came under David Moyes in 2005. However, this team constructed by Martinez is seen as a much better outfit than that team since they are playing a much better brand of football. Even though much of the team is based on loan signings like Romelu Lukaku and Gareth Barry, there is a real confidence within Everton that they can build on from this campaign. Chairman Bill Kenwright, who has had to go through several financial troubles in providing Everton with funds, says that it is a dream to have a manager like Martinez.

The Spaniard has come through after impressing at his previous jobs like Swansea and Wigan.

“It is difficult to put into words how good that was. I have seen some comprehensive victories for Everton but that was so consummate I thought ‘if you’re going to take me, take me now’. It was a great afternoon. An afternoon better than we would thought it would be. But that is Roberto Martinez – he gives you a dream and then goes one more. We have got difficult games coming up but qualifying for the Champions League is in our hands now,” said Kenwright.
Everton’s next match is against relegation threatened Sunderland.

Everton went into last weekend’s FA Cup match with Arsenal looking to progress to the semifinals of the competition, but they are left humiliated after a 4-1 thrashing by the gunners.

Even though they had drawn the previous league meeting at the Emirates stadium 1-1, this match was over as a contest long before the final whistle. Olivier Giroud scored two goals, while Romelu Lukaku provided the only consolation for Everton. On the positive side, this defeat means that the club can return to focus on the league, where they have not been doing well in recent months.

Everton has slipped to nine points behind the top four places with only 11 matches left in the season. Finishing in a European place remains the ultimate motto for the team and Martinez says that the club will return to this mode with the weekend’s match against Cardiff. After struggling for form since the arrival of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the club managed to get its first win in a long time last weekend. Hence, they will be confident coming to Goodison Park, but Martinez is hoping to get the better of the relegation threatened team.

He says that it is imperative that the team enjoys its football in the remainder of the campaign.

“There’s massive competition for places in the dressing room and we all know we’ve got six demanding games at Goodison. That’s something we really enjoy, playing in front of our fans and making sure everyone is proud of what we do at Everton. We’ve got 33 points to fight for and it’s an essential moment of the season. We need to get back to enjoying our football at Goodison and being together, as we always are,” said Martinez.

Everton have had just two wins in the last five league matches.

Everton brought in Aiden McGeady from Spartak Moscow during the January transfer window, but the 27-year-old has only started featuring for the team. Roberto Martinez has revealed that the winger has suffered from a serious loss of fitness after being frozen out of the first-team reckoning at Russian club.

He says that McGeady will be one of the best players in the Premier league once his form and fitness returns. He expects the player to be ready for 90 minutes in the next few weeks, as he has been preparing with extremely hard in training.

Martinez says that the player has immense technical ability to be able to change the style of play at Everton. After being defensively strong under David Moyes, the club has become one of the best passing teams in the division after the arrival of Martinez. They have been praised for the way they approach matches. Martinez says that McGeady has settled extremely well after a difficult time in Russia.

The Spaniard will be hoping that McGeady’s arrival coincides with an improvement in form for Everton, who have been slowly slipping down the table in recent weeks.
They have just one win in the last five matches and it has seen them slip to seventh in the table.

“Aiden has been putting in extra work, working really hard. It’s about him setting certain levels to make sure he’s fully fit soon. I think when he is he’ll take us to a different level in terms of our forward play. With Aiden we had to start from scratch in terms of building up the fitness levels that he needed and we can already see he’s a phenomenal player. He has great technical ability and it’s important to get him feeling sharp so he can show that,” said Martinez.

The manager of Everton, Roberto Martinez, has said that his team might not get the services of Ross Barkley for the next one and half months.

The 20 years old central midfielder from England had injured himself while playing for the Toffees in the FA Cup match against Queens Park Rangers a few days back. He didn’t feature in Everton’s match against Norwich City last weekend and Martinez reckons that the player might have suffered a fracture.

Barkley has been a key player for Everton this season. He has put up several match winning performances and losing him is certainly a big blow for the Merseyside club especially at a time when they have to play quite a few tough matches away from home.

Talking to the reporters about Barkley’s injury yesterday, Martinez said, “There might be a fracture in Ross’ toe and in that case, I think he will have to be on the sidelines for some weeks. His condition will be assessed by the medical team.”

“His injury is pretty much like that of Leighton Baines and you are never quite sure about these sorts of injuries. Sometimes, the players get fit pretty soon and start playing, but, sometimes, it can take them a bit of time.”

Barkley had started his senior career for Everton about 3 and half years back, but, before this season, he hadn’t been given that many playing opportunities. In fact in the last season, he hadn’t spent that much time at Goodison Park. He had been playing for other clubs on loan. But, he returned to Everton at the start of the ongoing season and was featuring regularly for them before getting injured.
In total, Barkley has played 32 league matches for the Toffees and has scored 3 goals.

English Premier League club Everton has escalated their interest in Diogo Viana, the Portuguese midfielder. In August, a leading sports website stated that Everton manager Roberto Martinez was closely monitoring the ace.

Since then Viana has continued his magnificent form for the high flying Gil Vicente in Portuguese Primeira Liga. Now, Everton must pay # 4.2 million to snatch him before Swansea City as they are also interested to get his service.

Ironically, Championship Blackburn had a contract teed up for Diogo earlier in August but it was proscribed by boss Gary Bowyer, who did not want more Portuguese footballers as he did not rate players like Diogo Rosado and Fabio Nunes at Ewood Park.

The thirty three year old footballer left Goodison Park in the year 2012 to move throughout the pond to play for New York Red Bull in the Major League Soccer in the United States.

In the meantime, former Everton player Tim Cahill is assessing his options in the English Premier League. More than that he is expecting approaches from some EPL sides.

According too reports, he stated that in the last loan time, 3  4 clubs came in and one was really close to signing him. It was from the English Premier League and it went all the way up to the wire. It was to stay fit. He added that he had to assess his fitness for the next World Cup in Brazil.