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Roberto Martinez batted away questions about Romelu Lukaku's desire to leave Everton and insisted the new financial era at Goodison means they can match the spending power of any club.

At his pre-Manchester United press conference the Blues boss faced a grilling, after his £28m striker used the international break to tell Belgian media he wants to play in the Champions League next season.

But Martinez insisted he wouldn't comment on Lukaku's wantaway outburst, but did maintain that the arrival of new investor Farhad Moshiri means they should no longer fear having to sell any player.

He said: "What we shouldn't be afraid about is losing payers because we are in a position where financially we can compete against anyone in world football at this time.

"Things have changed radically in that respect but at the moment it's the wrong time; it's pointless to talk about individual situations because we have two months left to finish the season strongly.

"You need to understand that at this point all that matters are the remaining games. In the summer we will have time to speak about individual situations.

"We're not in a position where we should be fearful of losing anyone because financially we can compete with anyone.

"At this present time it doesn't bother me what the individual situations will be in the summer. At the end of the season we will reassess how the season has gone. At the end of the season these individual cases will be approached and we can speak about that then.

"But this is the start of a new financial era at Everton. We are very very strong and have our own ambitions.

"We want to be a winning team and every window we will do that in order to become as good as we can. We made a huge investment in him and now you can see why. He has grown into the player we expected him to."

Martinez also denied that Lukaku's talk of playing at a high level next term could be unsettling.

He said: "It's not unsettling because that should be the aspirations of everyone. Being the best you can.

(Image: PA Wire)

"That's our aspiration - to be in the Champions League. I've said it openly for a long time. We want to be competing to win titles.

"We've just been in the semi-final of the League cup and marginally knocked out by eventual winners.

"Now we're in the semi-final of the FA Cup. The players need to be part of that and we need ambitious players who can carry the expectations of our football club."

The Catalan did admit his exasperation about the trend for players to speak out during international breaks.

"Every time we lose the payers for internationals it seems to attract what the players have to say, family member and people affiliated to them," he said.

"Nothing can upset our concentration on the next two months of our season.

"Rom is having a really good season - he needs to make it an outstanding season with the two months we have left. It's only the talking he does on the pitch that I'm looking at.

"Speculation is always because he's doing well on the pitch."