With former club talisman Robin van Persie successfully completing his permanent switch away from Old Trafford this summer, Louis van Gaal now faces going into the 2015/16 Premier League campaign with a distinct lack of striking options at his disposal.

The likes of Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernandez remain the only real first choice forwards at Manchester United ahead of the new season, and whilst young James Wilson may eventually see out his potential with the Red Devils in the upcoming future, the club’s current situation up-top remains far from satisfactory with all things considered.

Whilst a whole host of big name striker targets have supposedly been lined up by the club throughout the summer transfer window, there is one name reportedly still in the hat that could certainly gather a fair amount of attention should the interest in his services be genuine…

Everton’s marquee front-man, Romelu Lukaku, was initially linked with a move to the Red Devils a good few weeks back – leaving the rest of the English footballing community to ponder whether or not the powerful centre-forward would really suit playing at Old Trafford in 2015/16?

Well, if the Goodison Park faithful were to have their say, most would obviously be keen on holding onto their rapidly emerging Belgian star. Although his output in the Premier League has admittedly been far from spectacular since first joining the Toffees for a staggering £28million in 2014, Lukaku nonetheless represents a player with a great deal of potential.

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As well as offering Roberto Martinez a tough asset for defenders to deal with up-top however, it’s easy to forget that this former Anderlecht and Chelsea man still remains a mere 22-years-of-age. He is therefore well within the key development stages of his career – and if he can improve on his all-round reliability in front of goal across the next few seasons – fans of the Premier League could definitely be witnessing a true world beater in Lukaku soon on the horizon.

From being able to bully even the most hardened English defences in the Premier League, to equally providing his respective fan-base with a fair amount of technical prowess in the final third – everything necessary to make it at the very highest level is already present in the up and coming Everton man.

With such a glowing report for Romelu Lukaku in mind then, Manchester United and Louis van Gaal would certainly find themselves in a pretty exciting position if they eventually managed to lure the Belgian front-man away from Goodison Park this summer. Alongside Memphis Depay and Wayne Rooney at Old Trafford – the current Toffees no. 10 would most definitely go a long way in replacing Robin van Persie at the club – and could perhaps even better the Dutchman’s efforts given enough time out on the pitch.

The Red Devils simply need a no-nonsense kind of striker doing the business for their club sooner rather than later, for without such an addition within Louis van Gaal’s squad, Manchester United ultimately remain somewhat flat in the striking department.

Those who have somehow proven keen to discredit the big Belgian front-man throughout his time in the Premier League though, would likely point to Lukaku’s less than successful spell at Stamford Bridge just a few short seasons ago – and how the striker eventually failed to make much of an impact at Chelsea.

However, as a succession of different Blues managers simply never saw fit to give Romelu Lukaku a decent run in the team whilst playing for the club, such criticisms of the centre-forward remain firmly wide of the mark. The Belgian international was a great deal younger whilst operating at Chelsea as well, which also must be fairly taken into consideration.

Yet despite the clear potential a player like Lukaku would seemingly offer at Old Trafford next term, it ultimately remains too difficult to imagine Everton ever parting ways with their record signing any time soon. If such a deal were to take place this summer, the Goodison Park faithful would simply never forgive their chairman for a agreeing to the move in the first place.

The player himself is also pretty well suited to his current surroundings at Everton. Therefore, although the chance to play with some world class talent at Manchester United will likely tempt the 22-year-old somewhat this summer, it would simply take a very brave man to suggest that Romelu Lukaku will be on his way out of Everton before the 2015 transfer window eventually comes to a close.

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