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Ronald Koeman insists that he expects Romelu Lukaku to stay but he doesn’t believe that Ross Barkley’s future will remain unresolved when the Blues report back for pre-season training on July 3.

Top scorer Lukaku has still not signed a lucrative new five-year deal but Koeman maintains that the key difference between the striker and Barkley is that the Belgian still has another two years remaining on his current contract.

He said: “Romelu has two years more on his contract. If there is interest in him then the board will know and they will come to the club if they have interest in the player. That is like everybody.”

Although the prospect of losing Lukaku might not send out the right signals given that Everton are trying to build a team capable of challenging for Champions League football, the Blues could always use the potential bumper fee to shape a new-look side.

Koeman cites the example of when the PSV Eindhoven side he played in sold Ruud Gullit to AC Milan in 1987 only to win the European Cup and domestic double the following season.

He said: “In my career we lost Ruud Gullit at PSV and everybody was afraid.

“But we signed some other new players and we won in 1988 the championship, the cup and the European Cup and that is football.

“Of course you like to keep your best striker, your top scorer, but we also need around that position more productivity.

“I said before maybe you lose at one side something but I am not talking about what will happen if he does not stay next season.

“I expect that he will stay because until now I did not hear anything from the board that one club is asking about Lukaku.”

Without a goal in his last four matches, Lukaku has been overhauled by Harry Kane in the race for the Premier League’s Golden Boot.

The Blues man is now two goals behind the Tottenham Hotspur striker going into the final game of the season but Koeman insists the former Chelsea man, who turned 24 this week, has not thrown in the towel.

He said: “There are more good strikers who can score a lot of goals. He is now two goals behind but that is not our priority for Sunday.

“Our priority is to have a good game and a good result. If he can score then that is nice but it is not the first thing we speak about.

(Image: Everton FC/Everton FC via Getty Images)

“He is one of the team and the team had a really good performance last week, before last week it was more difficult.

“The whole team performance was not only by the strikers or by Rom, we did not have productivity in front or creating chances in the last few games. More difficult, but that is football.

“He hasn’t switched off. It is the end of the season and these players need to play for their nations after the weekend, they still need to go on for another two weeks.”

Koeman maintains that he wants to keep lifelong Evertonian Barkley, declaring: “If you offer a player a new contract, a good contract, it means you want to keep the player,” but when asked if he was confident of the midfielder remaining at Goodison next season he replied: “no”.

(Image: Colin Lane)

Everton have slapped a £50million price tag on Barkley’s head but if no interested parties stump up what the Blues consider a suitable offer for the player then the manager admits he will have to ponder his next move on how to utilise the player in the final year of his contract.

When put to Koeman whether Barkley would remain part of his regular first team group if he hasn’t signed the new deal on the table but hasn’t been sold by the time Everton regroup from their summer break, the Blues boss said: “I don’t know. I don’t expect this. If yes, I need to think about it.

“I will have to talk about the situation but I expect an answer soon after the weekend and not another ten days.”