ROYAL BLUE: Sad Goodison farewell to natural goalscorer Yakubu

Jan 15 2011 by Greg O'Keeffe, Liverpool Echo

SO IT seems that an autumn afternoon in October was the last time Ayegbeni Yakubu will flash that big ice-white smile and perform his Super-Eagles celebrations in an Everton shirt.

The Nigerian’s solitary goal in an otherwise unremarkable 1-0 victory against Stoke City at Goodison Park, hinted at a change in fortunes for the powerful forward. The Yak, it seemed, was back.

Except he wasn’t. Sadly, that well-taken goal was to be the only time the 28-year-old found the back of the net all season, despite being given a run, of sorts, in the team by David Moyes.

He wasn’t the only one of course. Louis Saha took until this month against Spurs to break his 11-month goal drought and Jermaine Beckford has equally found scoring appearances tough to come by.

But with an £11m price-tag, a big reputation, and the memory of that prolific first season at Everton still in supporter’s minds, it was the slow, sad failure of the Yak which has been one of this season’s most disappointing sub-texts.

Moyes turned down a £6m bid for the services of the former Middlesbrough man last summer, and when West Ham’s laughable tactic of coming back in with a LOWER bid unsurprisingly failed, it seemed like Yakubu was set for an extended chance to recapture his best in royal blue.

That never happened though, and the Blues who have watched his forlorn cameos so far this campaign will have wondered what happened to the man who grabbed 21 goals in his first season.

The Yak’s confidence was shot, not helped by a woeful World Cup campaign when he was ridiculed for one of the misses of the tournament against South Korea.

The big striker then did himself no favours by returning to Finch Farm belatedly and out of shape, physically and mentally.

But David Moyes was patient with him, and admitted that in many ways the centre forward who was so popular at Everton’s training ground, was struggling to overcome a large battle.

The horrendous Achilles tendon injury he suffered at White Hart Lane in November 2008 looms large over any consideration of why the man from Benin never returned to his early promise.

"Yak is fit, but not back to the level where he was before the injury,” said Moyes in 2009. “When you have had a ruptured Achilles, a serious injury, the nine months out is the healing part of it.

“It might take five or six months for Yak to get back to where he wants to be.

“He is a part of the squad now, though, and if we can get the ball to Yak in the box then we know his history of scoring goals.

“But maybe the team at the moment is not ready for that, we need a centre-forward to contribute more in other ways.

“That's why we need Yak to get more games and more playing time.But if there's somebody you want the ball to fall to in the box, it's Yak."

Jibes about the hit-man’s weight have followed him for much of his career in England, something opposition supporters have often used to keep themselves amused (and maybe not helped by the Blues’ own chant of ‘Feed the Yak’).

But here Yakubu has fallen foul of lazy assumptions based on his powerful, muscular physique.

Upon his original return from injury, following a mammoth 11-month lay-off from football, many at Goodison were pleasantly surprised to see the fighting fit shape the Nigerian maintained. In terms of body fat – there was none.

But that injury, when the entire tendon was snapped in two, had a far more alarming effect. It stripped Yakubu of the half a yard burst of pace he once utilised so efficiently to tear past defenders and hit the onion bag. Without that, and with his self-belief at rock bottom, this season’s failings have been grimly predictable.

What now? His loan move to Leicester City may be temporary at first, but unless something drastic changes and Yakubu transforms himself in the Championship, the likelihood is that he will not return. It’s a shame – natural goalscorers are rare, and Moyes had one – even if only for 10 months in 2007/08.