“Is he the man that’s going to push United back to the summit in England and in Europe?”
Eamon Dunphy has labelled Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku “the Belgian Emile Heskey.”
Dunphy was a footballer for Millwall and the Republic of Ireland in the 1960s and 1970s, and an apprentice at United, before becoming a journalist and football pundit for RTE in Ireland.
His outspoken views have often courted controversy. For example, last season he said Paul Pogba is “useless” and that United overpaid for the French midfielder by about £70m.
You just don’t get punditry like that from Michael Owen.
Going in two-footed here https://t.co/McBJ9rtZrF
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) January 17, 2017
It appears Dunphy isn’t a fan of Lukaku either. The Irish pundit has unfavourably compared the 24-year-old to former Leicester City and England forward Emile Heskey.
The comparison is probably unfair, as Lukaku has a superior scoring rate in the Premier League.
The former Everton striker has 53 goals in 110 games in the division. Heskey’s best spell in front of goal, for Liverpool between 1999 and 2004, saw him score 39 league goals in 150 games.
However, Dunphy doesn’t appear to be impressed by either player, and reckons Lukaku isn’t the man to help United regain their supremacy in the Premier League and Europe.
“I don’t think Mourinho has secured any of his top targets,” Dunphy wrote in his column for the Irish Daily Star.
“Romelu Lukaku is big and strong and he hits hot streaks at times. But he’s the Belgian Emile Heskey. Is he the man that’s going to push United back to the summit in England and in Europe? No chance. Remember, United have lost Wayne Rooney and Zlatan Ibrahimovic they scored 23 Premier League goals between them last season, with the Swede accounting for the bulk of that tally. So, is Lukaku going to be a game changer? They need him to chip in with at least 20 goals just to replace what they’ve lost. Maybe Mourinho will get his hands on a couple of top class players, but I wouldn’t bet on it.”
