Who could replace Lukaku if he goes?

Domestically Loic Remy would be cheap and could be bought alongside one of the aforementioned. Bony and Bentake are the only other viable options from the Prem. I quite like the idea of buying Bentake at a loss in the sense we could potentially buy another striker with a 1 in 2 ratio for around a third of the money we'd receive for Rom.

That said, Bentake doesn't score on a regular basis and seems to have long barren spells before he goes on a scoring run where he'll score in more games than he plays.

I think Carlos Vela and Batsuyahi would compliment each other superbly, and they both have plenty of years left in the tank.

I like Morata too but he's probably out of our reach.

Well that's up to the club and given they are happy to just stay in the premiership and get their TV money its probably job done for Martinez. We should be able to scrape 3 points from the next 8 games to get above 40.

The players, the manager and the directors earn millions of pounds so have the comfort of their bank balances to let them sleep well at night. The fans get a raw deal with high prices and worn out medieval stadiums.

The only ambition this club has shown in the last 20 odd years is to maintain their position in the league. Look at Villa it could be Everton and I think we have a worse home record than them.

Lukaku has been quoted as saying he wants to play alongside his brother Jordan. Perhaps signing Jordan would convince Lukaku to stay?

For this reason I'm always dubious about delving into a league abroad especially weaker ones like Belgium, Russia etc.

Isn't it about time we found ourselves a little gem like a Mahrez or a Payet? It seems every time we delve into these league's we end up paying over the odds for not really very good footballers in all honesty, we rarely find ourselves a little technical creative genius or a striker that looks like he can move.

Fellaini so far, about the only real success of big money spent on a relatively unknown quantity at that time.

Once we sell Lukaku, we are looking for a man big enough, good enough and willing to take the responsibility of being the spearhead of our attack, he can't be someone who just scores 9 or 10 goals, he has to be someone who scores 19 or 20...

For the money we are likely to spend on a new striker he also can't be a Niasse, waiting for 100% fitness or having six month settling in periods. He must hit the ground running.

It's going to be a crucial summer at Everton Football Club me thinks.

In the interim we have Kone whose "Intensity is building to a big, big moment for us".

And he's only 22

Hard to believe anyone would buy him based on that showing.

If we want to stay with 1 man up top then we'd need a goalscoring midfielder as well.

But what about a new goalie too? De Gea showed on Sunday that a world class goalie can earn you points as much as a striker can.

When Liverpool sold Suarez for £80 million, they never replaced him with another prolific goal scorer, instead led to their recent demise and the manager was eventually sacked, when goals were hard to come by and dried up.

But we must strive to keep Rom.

I think Besic could be a good player for us and Barry is very underrated. Cleverley brings us nothing and I think McCarthy has an undeserved reputation as being a ball-winner. He isn't.

To answer the original question, we need better scouting. Look at Vardy, Payet, Kane and Mahrez. You don't need to spend a fortune if you know where to look.

I like Remy – very very good player, very intelligent runner and great finisher. Would replace Rom's goals, but his all round game like Roms requires a second striker.

I liked Origi in the World Cup – like a better version of Welbeck who will one day be a good striker. Those lot have fallen in love with him after an iffy start.

Harry Kane impresses me every time I see him – he doesn't let misses affect him and his work for the team is tremendous – the sign of a player who will always score, be valued by his team mates and go on to win things. Spurs won't sell for less than what we get for Rom.

Bony is a player who will score goals – his goals per minutes player is up there. Strong, athletic and a good finisher, probably get his for under £20m now.

Wouldn't go near Berahino with a barge pole after his attitude and subsequent performances when he didn't get a transfer. Suspect he's nailed for Spurs in CL also.

Don't know anything about the Polish guy at Ajax, but I guess other options would be the guy at Marseilles (though he's not in Lukaku's class yet). Must be other young potential stars out there though...

I like Milik but he will never be as effective as Lukaku in the Premier League. He will score some amazing goals though.

In order for him to stay, we have to buy quality around him which means buying early in the summer. No deadline day panic buys if we want him to trust us and buy into our vision of making the club great again.

Furthermore, Stuart McCall was on 5 live this morning, he was being interviewed about Rangers heading back into the top flight of Scottish football. Then, totally off subject, the interviewer asked him about Everton and whether he thought Roberto will be there next season. Needless to say, he didn't really answer the question and skirted around the issues but this rolling stone is gathering moss within the media.

Rom can either then sulk or work his backside off to engineer his big move. That way we find his replacement(s) before he goes? Makes sense to me.

Still – if Rom has to go (and that's no certainty given the new guys money); its got to be the Bat Man for me every time. This guy is going to be the real deal.

We need players like Cahill, Osman, Hibbert, that bald guy who plays with Gravesen... you know, players who know that EFC is probably the best they can get out from their careers – and I mean this in the best possible way.

Milik is only 22, I think he's the real deal after watching the Eredivisie on Sky, not only amazing goals, great positional awareness, and a good assist rate too.

I'm amazed if the Premier League scouts aren't sniffing around his agent. Height, speed, strength... he's going places.

I doubt the transfer fee would be particularly exorbitant and his wages would be reasonable.

He would be a realistic target instead of chasing after forwards who are already at bigger, richer, and more successful clubs than us.

I certainly wouldn't waste any time on the likes of Bony. Like every Citeh player he would have to take a serious pay cut to join Everton so I just can't see that happening.

His goalscoring record is great, but his performances are hit and miss to say the least – he is absolutely world and light years away from being a world-class footballer.

Some interesting names suggested... I'd be happy to take a punt on any of them with the vast funds we will have available.

Get this arrogant overrated clown out of the club and get someone in who wants to play and apply himself in every game, not just when he fancies it.

This guy's bullshit no longer has credibility.

Then bring him back. He will still have 2 years on his contract and will no doubt increase his value whilst not playing for Everton!

Then if we are in Champions League for 2017-18, he can play for us, if we think he's good enough.

I am sure we could get a team to pay a 'loan fee' and his wage for a season whilst we decided whether we want to keep him.

Player power got Mourinho fired from Chelsea... if that can happen then there is a precarious situation in football given his standing and track-record.

Players will join EFC for pound notes and the promise of ambition... whether Martinez is manager or A N Other is of little consequence given our current club status (i.e, non UCL qualifying, non trophy winning).

You must have read my take on Lukaku on the TW thread after the Man Utd debacle, I said exactly the same about him being a world class scorer but lazy, terrible ball control, easily dispossessed with a poor work rate and constantly caught in offside positions, so in my opinion we should cash in asap because he obviously wants out anyway.

As for Niasse, I also watched his goalscoring video and while he's good at putting chances away most of them were due to abysmal defending, nothing like what he'll be up against in the Premier League. But giving him the benefit of hindsight, I'm prepared to 'wait and see' given that he's only had a couple of last minute cameos so far.

Right now players would be more attracted by West Ham, Spurs and Southampton even ignoring the usual suspects (Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City and Arsenal).

It is my view that only a top manager will attract the top players who can then see more chance of success with Everton.

The lifelong supporters cannot envisage success under this clown never mind top calibre players.

Top players want trophies and success. They know they can get money anywhere these days.

WTF?

As for Lukaku being lazy and useless at Old Trafford, here was me thinking that the bloke was consistently isolated and feeding off poor crosses, as we were set up to sit deep and play direct counter attacking football.

A ploy used many times away from home by David Moyes.

Which would suggest Martinez may be abandoning his highly touted possession based philosophy?

And whilst we are at it, I watched El Classico, supposedly the future of football.

Apart from the diving and cheating, I noted Barca's goal came from a set piece and Madrid's goals from the old fashioned way of get it to the wide man to put in a dangerous cross.

Goes to show, set pieces, direct play and crosses, hitherto anathema to the Martinez way of Modern Football still have a place. Who knew!

No Everton manager has delivered that, ergo it has nothing to do with the manager other than as a matter of individual (unsupported, unsubstantiated) opinion.

There are a finite number of clubs in the Champions League – not all of them as financially attractive as our own. The fact that one player, one who's reputation is far greater than his footballing ability, currently wants out... I don't take that as any relevant marker on our ability to attract top talent.

Lukaku can get lost as far as I'm concerned, players with his attitude should never be pandered to at this club. Good riddance to him... it's no wonder that team spirit/ 'cohesion' is low with such poor characters poisoning the dressing room.

To have watched the Classico, as poor as this one was (arguably the worst in a decade), and not see that the fundamental approach of both sides (probably 2 of the best 3 sides in europe with Bayern) is possession based, would lead me to question a person's judgement.

Hard tackling, running, competing for header..they are all vital to winning football games, always will be. There is a vast difference between offering these things as part and parcel of any performance though, and putting 'physical' attributes at the core of your philosophy.

We will be unable to replace Lukaku with a player of his abilities with the promises of money as clubs in the Championship will offer him the same with exposure in a more lucrative market of the Championship League.

Players are ambitious and want to play for ambitious clubs that will provide them with lucrative contracts and realistic promises of silverware. Everton even with promises of more income are not going to be able to provide this if they loose players like Lukaku. Stones or Barkley and keep having to rebuild.

We need an experienced manager with a experienced backroom staff to try to encourage these players to stay. Our problem is we don't have one and it may be to late to hold onto these players if we don't get one.

Players do not want to go to 12th position clubs they will be looking at the top 6 or even stay at their present clubs if it offers championship football.

Remember a lot of the names being thrown around, their clubs may not want to part with them, and as some supporters are saying on here "Why don't we refuse Lukaku a transfer request"? – What is to stop them doing the same?

I don't think that Lukaku stated that he wants to play in the Championship League next season; I believe he stated he believed he was ready for the Championship League. All of the other quotes seem to be coming from his agent.

Watching El Classico, I really did miss the "core/fundamental approach" of possession football in this game.

The game I watched had Madrid sitting deep and looking to hit Barca on the break with quick passes out to the flanks, from where crosses were sent in. A tactic so successful that they scored twice and had a third wrongly disallowed.

Gareth Bale even spent most of the game hurling in Rory Delap style long throws. Not exactly the formula for retaining possession from a throw.

Barca played the Barca way but created few chances and scored from a set piece.

Goals win games, as someone famously said, and if this fixture was the supposed epitome of Modern Football, it showed great teams will adapt and change their style to find a way to score.

The "core/fundamental approach" I saw was tactical flexibility and an exploitation of opposition weaknesses, not a dogmatic adherence to 1 style of play.

As for your admission that set pieces do have a place in the modern game, its a shame that Martinez, who has publicly denounced their virtue, does not feel the same way as you. Curiously, Everton's two best chances on Sunday came from set pieces so perhaps he has changed his views. No problem there, except I wish he had not waited until 106 games into his Everton tenure to realise how cretinous his previous stance was.

Oh, and while we´re at it. Let´s have a pop at that Messi guy, and Ronaldo. And perhaps we could get Benzema, Bale, Pogba and Lewandowski.

I mean seriously, just a possible as some of these suggestions.

If that happens then we have a better chance of keeping our best players while also attracting better talent than we have at the moment.

Most of the strikers mentioned on here would most likely not want to come with the present status quo unless they were offered stupid money. Can't wait for the summer myself, it's going to be interesting!

He was convinced that there was at least one superstar waiting to be unearthed in the lower divisions every season, he reckoned that more often than not, they didn't get their chance.

Sometimes it's just as important to recognise a good player as it is to have the money to splash out on one. He spoke about a guy who was at Bristol (I think) at the time, His name was Andy Cole.

Things have moved on since then, talent can be found all over the world – you just need somebody who recognises it

Problem sorted and no money spent.

Now, where is Dave Thomas and is Kevin Sheedy wiling to give up coaching?

If I had been eating cornflakes, I would have spitten them out!!

I have no doubt that Moshiri will take over full control in the summer. Why Kenwright has allowed his time to drag on like this is beyond me. Maybe he just wanted to still be chairman on the off chance that we win the cup.

Hopefully once we have or haven't won the cup Kenwright will finally hand over the reins to Moshiri and he can start rebuilding this club from top to bottom. Which is what we all want whether Lukaku stays or not.

Not a criticism of this young striker, just making a point that the way he has been managed by Martinez is an indictment of the worst coach in our history.

Even talking about selling him is depressing. Stop being small time. We're 12th and have enough to worry about.

Rooney might come, but he's a shadow of a once very good player. Bony looks nowadays like a lazy and very introverted player. Vardy's nearly 30and is excellent for a team that's set up to play to his style. Would he be the same player under the great Martinez?

Finishing: 18/20
Pace: 17/20
Acceleration: 14/20
Aggression: 5/20
Work rate: 4/20
Teamwork: 5/20
Aerial ability: 12/20
First touch: 10/20
Heading: 14/20
Long shots: 13/20
Passing: 12/20
Technique: 12/20
Dribbling ability: 14/20
Bravery: 5/20
Composure: 19/20
Concentration: 10/20
Determination: 5/20

I think a few players costing far less than £60m who would like to earn £75k a week would pop up...

If we really are a big club, if this new investment is really significant, why don't we target a quality manager and decent players with a present and future?

Whatever we think of Martinez, let's look for progress rather than the comfort of previous mediocrity.

Out of sheer curiosity, I wonder how long he has left on his current contract?

The main reason he will not come is his agent will make sure he has two or three options away from England that will pay wages we couldn't afford and that will add to the Millions he will never spend if he lives to be a hundred and fifty years of age.

Why Rooney or Bony? If Everton are are going to be a force again, Martinez must go and keeping our star players is a must. I feel the club has gone back 10 years during the past 18 months. Fans need to be realistic on whom will come to Everton at present.

Since my first visit to Goodison, when Brentford beat us 4-0 in August 1946, I have believed that Everton are big club. Martinez is trying so hard to make it a smaller club, and if Moshiri backs him with more money for players he will be aiding and abetting the downgrade.

Moshiri might somehow influence Vicente Del Bosque's suggestion that Martinez might succeed him as new manager then this failure to lead becomes Spain's problem and Everton will spared until we get a world class manager in the summer.

2. There are lots of strikers we can dream about, and hope for; but realistically, who is out there, who (a) has a decent record in this league; (b) is broadly similar to Rom; (c) is likely to be available; (d) at a sensible price; and (e) would want to come? Step forward Wilfried Bony!!

He is gonna be that hard to replace I reckon, so hopefully the new chairman, ahem, majority investor will do something special to keep Lukaku and sign some top notch players to accompany him.

Most of all... get Martinez out.

Milik
Fischer
El Ghazi
Klaassen

And yes, I'd go for Koeman all day long as the new gaffer.

So If we are having a wish list here is mine. Apart from having premier league experience, I think all these centre forwards can hold the play up, shoot, and for me perhaps the most important of all can head the ball.

Olivier Giroud
Eden Dzeko
Grazianno Pelle

I think as someone said already Batshuayi would be a good shout.

I would like to take a leaf out of Leicester's book and get back to a 4-4-2. Too much on the way of playing German / Spanish systems these days that don't work. Just look at the system used by Man Utd and even the best Arsenal sides over the last 20 years – 4-4-2; our glory days in the 80s – 4-4-2; dare I say on the RedShite – 4-4-2; Cloughie's Forest...

Two proper strikers, please. (And a new manager.)

㿭 million would go a long way with signings as we don't now have a debt to pay off, or do we!!!!

Andre Gray or Ross McCormack would be worth a look in my opinion, working on the basis that most Championship strikers (like Deeney) come up and do alright. Rooney back if he wants to take the paycut would be good, as would Fellaini to replace Barry.

I actually thought Niasse's YouTube video looked good but then couldn't find the one I'd seen again once we had signed him, looks like he's taking time to adjust, might be something to do with his terrible choice of headwear, he looks a bit of a tit.

As for the manager it's not good enough to still be in with a chance of relegation at this time of the season, but if we don't win again that is a clear danger, sounds like Wigan all over again. I said he talked a lot of shite before we'd even kicked a ball so glad people have finally caught up.

Not too bothered about who the replacement should be but one that hasn't been relegated the season before would be a good start... Moyes, Howe, De Boer, Bielsa or Mourinho I'd be happy with.

NSNO

He sells Naismith and sends McAleny out on loan then spends £13.5M on the most exciting unfit player in Russia... Now that's a plan!!!