WHATEVER you think about the amount of money Everton are paying for Yakubu, one this is for certain.

You know what you are going to get for it. David Moyes knows he isn’t buying a forward who will run into all four corners of the ground chasing people down.

Believe it or not, I never saw Dixie Dean play but I can’t imagine he was the type of player who did that either.

His team-mates knew where he would be and that was in the area – put it there and he will put it in the net.

With Yakubu it’s a similar thing, you’re buying goals and if his record at Portsmouth and Middlesbrough is anything to go by, you’re buying guaranteed goals.

Leave the running and the stretching of defenders to Andrew Johnson. He has the pace and now it’s up to Yakubu to provide the power.

It seems clear that the Nigerian hasn’t been brought in to provide competition for Johnson – I think it will help him.

One of the problems Everton seemed to have against Blackburn on Saturday was that they seemed to be playing as if Yakubu was already in the team, it was too long for me.

With Johnson and James McFadden up front, that played right into the hands of the defenders for long periods of the game but they wouldn’t have been so comfortable if Yakubu was up there challenging them.

So when he does eventually get in there, Johnson can play off him and might get more space if he has someone keeping the more physical defenders occupied.

They know that they can’t afford to do anything but watch Yakubu for the full 90-plus minutes of a game because if he gets space to attack he can be almost impossible to stop.

The extra nuisance value is what Moyes needs in his forward line and he will have the added bonus of two players up there who are proven Premiership finishers.

As for the fee Middlesbrough are getting, I just think after the summer of madness we’ve just had in the Premiership it’s pretty much the going rate.

Overall Everton haven’t paid over the odds for their players, like Leighton Baines and Phil Jagielka, and the sale of James Beattie proves you can always recoup money if a big signing doesn’t work out.

So Yakubu for me is not a massive gamble, and even then it’s one worth taking.

After all, Moyes is getting the finished product.

Take into account the fact that Victor Anichebe and McFadden along with James Vaughan and Tim Cahill when they are fit, can come in to the side, Everton will be a far more potent force than they have been so far.

And it also gives them the option to change the way they play, which they suffered from not being able to do at the weekend.

Taking all that into account, given Yakubu gets his work permit sorted this week, I reckon he’s looking like a good bit of business already.

Proud to join celebrations as adopted Scouser

AS Liverpool celebrates its 800th birthday, it’s a good time for people to reflect on what the city means to them.

Being from just down the road in Preston I would be considered more of a Woollyback – but I feel like an adopted Scouser.

In fact, after my footballing career and with the job I do now, I go to a lot of places and everyone assumes I’m a Scouser. I just reply: “Of course I am.”

And that’s the thing with Liverpool. Over 800 years there have been great times and unfortunately some bad times but, whether it’s football or any aspect of life, the sense of one-ness is fantastic.

The reaction of the normal Liverpool person to adversity – whether it’s Heysel, Hillsborough or the death of Rhys Jones last week – is phenomenal and you question whether you would get that in any other city.

I still live in the area and there’s such a mixture of Irish and Scottish players nearby who moved here at around the same time and are still here. It’s great. And it’s because Liverpool, to us, is now just home.

Benitez’s ‘two teams’ now more able to cope without missing stars

ANOTHER Premier League away game where Liverpool fans look at Rafael Benitez’s team and feel a warm glow.

Ryan Babel starting along with Fernando Torres and Andriy Voronin sent out the message that the manager wasn’t afraid to attack.

And it paid off perfectly too because that game at Sunderland should have been over at half-time.

That’s perhaps the only worry – it took far too long to score that second goal and if Sunderland had nicked an equaliser some of those missed chances would have been fatal.

But overall it was another encouraging game, especially with Momo Sissoko coming in and scoring his first goal for the club.

You’d have Steven Gerrard in every starting line-up in the world, but when he’s not available it proves Benitez now has two very good teams to call on.

That’s why I’m hopeful Jamie Carragher won’t be missed too much while Liverpool wait for him to recover from his broken ribs – certainly not tonight against Toulouse anyway.

They have to attack and claw back an away goal, which they might be confident of doing in the absence of Carragher.

But in all honesty, from what I saw in the first leg they’re quite ordinary going forward and Liverpool can be quite happy to let them go forward.

The way they looked on the counter-attack at Sunderland, they should be able to pick off Toulouse with ease and launch another Champions League run.

Mark Lawrenson was talking to NICK SMITH