Everton: 10 Reasons Lukaku And Barkley Are Best Signings Of 2014

6. Long Term Signings

Both players have signed long term contracts, with Barkley penning a four-year deal whilst Lukaku has signed a five year contract at Goodison Park. Roberto Martinez seems intent on keeping the players at the club for a long time, at at their young age that means he can personally develop them into top quality Everton players. And if we were to look at this pessimistically, if one or both players don't work out as well as planned, they would be young enough to sell on for a healthy profit should they somehow fail to be as good as they seem to promise. Even better, if both players turn out to be top quality and end up becoming world class, Everton may be able to sell to another club willing to part with an obscene amount of money to sign one or both of these potential superstars. But the long term contracts seem to signal a new era at Everton, an era where the club want to hold on to their best and brightest for a long time, rather than selling them off to other clubs deemed 'better.' Which leads perfectly onto my next point...