Dodi Lukebakio and Fortuna Dusseldorf came crashing back down to earth at the weekend as they lost 1-0 to Mainz at home.
It leaves them bottom of the Bundesliga table, and the the brilliant 3-3 comeback draw away to Bayern Munich, and Lukebakio’s hat-trick, now feels a long time ago.
Rheinische Post throw out some truth bombs in their Wednesday edition. The German newspaper are looking at the Watford owned player and explain he isn’t quite yet a star, although it’s believed he has everything to become one.
On the question of whether he can keep Fortuna up alone, the answer is negative. The forward needs good balls to run on to, and there’s not often the likelihood of that.
So, after saddening Fortuna fans, Rheinische Post look at what may happen if the club stays up, do they have any chance of keeping the player. The answer is firmly put as ‘No’.
Watford didn’t include a buying option and it’s estimated by the newspaper that €20m would be the asking price. Even that may be conservative.
What Rheinische Post do believe is a speculative option is a very big club signing Lukebakio and then loaning him back to Fortuna, but even that seems stretched. Watford will want to keep the player under their ownership, and if they loan him out again next season then a club not battling relegation would be likely be preferred.
Not a happy read for Fortuna fans today.
