Football Pundit Makes Controversial Claim That Man Utd's Lukaku Is More Effective Than PL Star Duo

Former Republic of Ireland and Chelsea forward Tony Cascarino has claimed that Romelu Lukaku is ultimately a more effective player than either Sanchez or Coutinho. 

The 24 year-old Belgian has enjoyed a flawless start to his United career, having made it five goals in five Premier League games after scoring against his old club Everton, and whom Cascarino believes were weak in letting the striker leave.

Writing in his column for The Times, Cascarino said: "The most significant bit of business that Everton did was selling Romelu Lukaku. What a terrible decision that was.”

"As we saw during the transfer window that just passed, there was a new-found willingness for clubs to keep their best players, even if they were offered money exceeding their realistic valuations." 

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Cascarino went on to state that, "Arsenal kept Alexis Sánchez, Liverpool turned down more than £100m for Philippe Coutinho and Southampton held on to Virgil van Dijk, despite the player threatening to go on strike. Those teams deemed their stars to be irreplaceable so they kept hold of them.

"I would argue, given his talent, potential and importance to Everton, that Lukaku is worth more than either Sánchez or Coutinho and yet not only did they sell him, it now seems that Everton didn’t even get the market rate for the Belgium striker."

Everton currently sit in 18th place after five games, and after the heavy investment during the transfer window, it could be argued that his viewpoint is somewhat accurate. Lukaku has helped United climb to the top of the table where they are level on points with Manchester City.