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Terry McAllister (Walton)

As annoying as Mino Raiola is piping up during every international break, can anyone really argue with his logic?



The reality of football is that if you have a player of a certain level, you need to be competing at that level to keep them happy. Romelu Lukaku is a proven 20+ goal a season striker and is improving all of the time.



The question for the club this summer is not can they keep him, but how much can they make the buying club pay? Everton have had every chance to fulfill Lukaku's ambitions since signing him and we haven't even come close.



This season Leicester City could run away with the league title and it so easily could have been us. Do they have better players than Everton? No.

Are they a better team? Absolutely.

The blame rests entirely with the manager who hasn't learned from his mistakes or made the most of this stellar squad of players.

David Taylor (St Helens)

An absolute battering by Arsenal, followed swiftly by an international break, is not my idea of fun. Yet we are quickly arriving at the weekend with a challenging trip down the East Lancs to try and cheer everyone up.

It is an away game after all so we do have more chance than we would if we were playing them at the gift that carries on giving in L4.

The away fan contingent are almost always right behind the team so I don’t think there is potential for Lukaku getting any grief – not sure if it would do any good anyway.

He is clearly eyeing an exit this summer and unless Moshiri can somehow convince him otherwise we may as well get behind him and the rest of the squad while we still have the FA Cup to fight for; like it or not if we don’t have a fit and firing Lukaku in the semi-final (and final) we will struggle.

I certainly believe there are players out there who can replace Lukaku, particularly now we have more financial muscle, but between now and the end of the season we need him as much he needs us for some shop-window displays, most notably at Wembley.

The wait between the quarter final and the semi-final feels massive and the number of games we have before 23 April is of course a worry but it also gives us the chance to get our confidence back and get some real momentum.

Gareth Barry was a huge miss against Arsenal, not sure what happened to Besic (?!), but his self-imposed mini-break will have done him a world of good.

COYB

George Gibson (Nantwich)

We seem to have a repeat of this every year when a player goes away on international duty. First Marouane Fellaini, then Kevin Mirallas and now Romelu Lukaku have all alluded to leaving the club whilst playing for Belgium.

Of course it is disrespectful to the club who is paying your wages to say that you are looking to play for a better club, but who can really blame Lukaku for wanting to do so?

He has without a doubt been up there with Jamie Vardy and Harry Kane this year as the best striker in the league, and in a season when Leicester and Tottenham are the top two this really could have been Everton’s year but for the failings of the manager.

The defending this season has been unacceptable, and that is down to the set-up and tactics of Martinez. It is hard to see Everton progressing while he remains in charge.

Lee Molton (St Helens)

Premier League football is back this weekend, international friendlies are so boring!

It was interesting to read Romelu Lukaku’s comments about playing in the Champions League, I don’t blame him for having ambition. I wish our board and manager had the same ambition as him to get into the Champions League instead of being happy to finish 11th or 12th.

There are only three weeks to the semi-finals and we all can’t wait!

It would be good to get a few more wins before then and climb into the top half of the table.

Sunday’s game at Man United will be tough but we always give them a good game so we can come away with something.

We need to after a dismal display against Arsenal two weeks ago.

There was not much heart and passion at all and we gave Arsenal far too much space.

We cannot afford to let the League season just peter out, we need to finish as high up as possible.

The players are all playing for their semi-final spot now and should all want to impress the manager. Hopefully he will give the likes of Gibson, Deulofeu and Niasse a chance to impress in the next few games.