Ever since Romelu Lukaku departed Everton in the summer of 2017, the Toffees have been crying out for a deadly striker to the standard of the Belgian to lead the line and singlehandedly change games in their favour.
Scoring a staggering 87 goals in total for the Blues before departing for Manchester United – 25 of those coming in his final and most fruitful season on Merseyside – the club have never truly replaced their former star man.
It has not been through a lack of trying, however, as Everton must have thought they had finally found the remedy for their wasteful nature in attack in the form of Dominic Calvert-Lewin when he burst onto the scene at Goodison Park.
A deadly 2020-21 season for the ex-Sheffield United man, scoring 16 goals for the Toffees, has unfortunately been followed up by lengthy spells on the sidelines with reoccurring injury knocks and concerns surrounding his fitness.
Everton supporters will just hope and pray that rumours surrounding the Blues' interest in young sharpshooter Maximilian Beier are concrete, the 21-year-old Hoffenheim attacker lighting up the Bundesliga with his goalscoring prowess.
Are Everton interested in Beier?
According to German football website Fussball Transfers, there's been significant interest in Beier's services from English clubs with German football journalist Christian Falk further stating that the Toffees are keen on the Hoffenheim man alongside Brentford and even Liverpool who have scouted the 6 foot 1 forward ahead of January.
Beier has signed a new bumper contract with Hoffenheim which might stop this move dead in its tracks – keeping him with the Bundesliga outfit until 2027 – but it will be intriguing to see whether the temptation of playing Premier League football is too much for the young man to handle regardless of this development and Everton could then still land the clinical forward.
If they were to land Beier, they could well finally have a striker again of Lukaku's ilk.
How good is Everton's new potential Lukaku?
Heralded as having the "genes to score goals" by Hoffenheim head coach Pellegrino Matarazzo last month, Beier has been a deadly and potent striker ever since coming to the club as a wide-eyed youngster in the youth set-up.
Scoring goals galore for the U17's and Hoffenheim's second-string II team – managing a combined 28 goals for both from 51 appearances – the 21-year-old ace has never looked back since cementing his spot in the senior side.
He has eight goals from 20 matches to date now for the men's first team, including an impressive six goals from eight games this season in the Bundesliga, whilst no Toffees player has scored more than three league goals.
He's the deadly forward Everton have been craving over these last few seasons, seizing on a single moment of weakness from the opposition and, more times than not, cannoning a fierce effort in without a sliver of remorse.
Not built like Lukaku in terms of brute strength, he's still more than comfortable driving past defenders with tricky feet instead of sheer muscle. He's an evasive attacker, slippery to keep hold of and so hard to contain when on blistering form.
He is similar however to Everton's former talisman in terms of his numbers, Beier coming in with 3.24 shot-creating actions per match this campaign compared to Lukaku's similar 3.58 according to FBRef.
Moreover, both attackers in question are more than happy to drop deep in order to kickstart a promising move – FBRef states that Beier has 13 touches in the defensive third per 90 which is a surprising statistic for a striker, with Lukaku coming in at an equally interesting eight.
If Everton do continue their pursuit of the three-time Germany U21 International and place a bid, they'll have everything crossed that Beier can be their next goalscoring icon in the mold of Lukaku and not another expensive flop who turns out to be toothless when pulling on a Toffees strip.