Everton boss Koeman hoping to hang on to Barkley and Lukaku

Ronald Koeman has warned Ross Barkley that he risks being sold if he doesn’t sign a new Everton contract.

Midfielder Barkley was in sparkling form on Sunday as the Toffees beat reigning Premier League champions 4-2, the highlight being a superb whipped cross for the first of two Romelu Lukaku goals.

However, the 23-year-old’s current Everton deals runs out next summer and manager Koeman admits the equation is simple – Barkley signs a new contract and stays or doesn’t and is shipped out.

“We offer him a new contract, and then [there are] two possibilities,” Koeman said when asked what he could do to keep Barkley.

“One, he signs that contract, if he doesn’t sign that contract then we need to sell the player. It’s simple, it’s not so difficult in my opinion.”

Barkley isn’t the only Everton hot shot that could be on his way out of Goodison Park, with the future of Lukaku also up in the air.

Lukaku scored twice on Sunday to take his tally for the season to 23, and Koeman is eager to see his best players stay with Everton.

“We try to keep the best players,” Koeman added. “We spoke a lot about Ross and Rom because they are really important. Most of the time the quality of the players can be the difference between Everton and the opponent, and they played really well.

“We know Rom is a great finisher but Ross played really good football between the lines. I think he should have scored one but it is what you like to see – your best players performing like they showed because they played outstanding, the whole team performance was outstanding.

“You need those kind of players on their top level because they make differences and that’s what we like.”