First there was Lionel Messi equalling his record of 26 converted free-kicks for Barcelona. The death of Graham Taylor then brought his role in that World Cup qualifier back into the spotlight and at Goodison Park on Sunday he will be reacquainted with his European Cup winning team-mate Pep Guardiola. The past has echoed for Ronald Koeman this week while he attempts to mould Everton’s future. It is one that he accepts must improve on the present.
Koeman and Guardiola meet regularly now they live in close proximity – Alderley Edge for the Everton manager, Manchester for City’s – and how the former must envy the latter’s problems. Manchester City, for all Guardiola’s angst and disappointments, still harbour hope of the Premier League title, are still in the FA Cup and have secured a date with Monaco in the last 16 of the Champions League. Everton have commenced the January overhaul demanded by their manager – signing Morgan Schneiderlin and Ademola Lookman in deals that could total £35m, submitting a £10.4m bid for Ishak Belfodil, offloading Tom Cleverley to Watford and Oumar Niasse to Hull City – but their immediate horizon appears bereft by comparison.
Defeat at home in the third round of the FA Cup against Leicester City last Saturday, following a loss at home in the third round of the EFL Cup to Norwich City, forced a manager recruited at great expense to admit the remaining aims for his debut season were to consolidate seventh place in the Premier League and implement changes required of the team. Humdrum prospects, possibly realistic prospects, but not what Koeman or Farhad Moshiri envisaged when the major shareholder paid Southampton £5m in compensation for his £6m per annum manager in the summer.
Koeman’s frustration with the pace of Everton’s “project” boiled over in the immediate aftermath of the Leicester defeat when he insisted everyone should “open their eyes” to the improvements needed. But he is not the only person at Goodison whose patience has been tested by a modest start to his tenure. “The disappointment was about the result,” the manager clarified on Friday “We dominated and lost the game in 10 minutes. I knew what we needed to change and at that time it was only about being more sure about what we needed to change and what decisions we need to take. If you come in a new situation as a manager, you start the season and we did with some good signings, and then little by little during that season you see what you don’t like and what you need to change. That is not done in two weeks, it takes more time and finally after this summer it will really be my team, and it will be a team the fans will like. We will be ready then to take the next step.”
There was understanding for the Everton manager’s message after the FA Cup exit, less with the timing, as his visible anger was channelled in the direction of the club’s board and, it seemed, director of football Steve Walsh. “I am really happy with the way it is working with Steve,” Koeman insists. “We have daily contact, we speak about the team, we speak about players, he is reorganising the scouting and I am on a very good line with Steve Walsh. I know the business. It’s not that you like a player, you put a bid in and then you get the player. No, it is business. Sometimes it is difficult and sometimes it is about money, and I have mentioned before I am not the man who will decide about transfers. On the technical side I will do my job with Steve Walsh and we will do the best for Everton. We will try to find the right player for Everton and the strongest squad we will have. And finally it is money and it is not my decision.”
The Dutch coach has been accused of not caring enough about Everton but, as 28 team honours as a player and manager can attest, how much he cares about winning is beyond dispute. He also accepts that pressure to improve results and performances will intensify with every expensive signing delivered by Walsh and the board.
“Part of my job is that finally the responsibility is always with the manager and that’s normal,” said Koeman. “What I like is to bring the best team for the fans, and if we have that then we need to perform and we need success, but that is what I like and what I have had all my life in football. I was always most of the time working in clubs as player and coach to win titles. That is no different now.”
In many respects Koeman’s blunt approach mirrors Moshiri’s designs on a club that has gone 22 years without a trophy and counting. A telling exchange came at Everton’s recent AGM, a night brimming with talk of a new stadium on the Liverpool waterfront and commercial deals totalling £75m, when the club’s new investor and business associate of Alisher Usmanov took the microphone from Bill Kenwright.
The Everton chairman had just given a glowing response to a video of the club’s 2016 highlights. The presentation ranged from numerous successful community projects to a toe‑curling Talksport survey that claimed Everton were the most likeable club in the Premier League. “It’s great what we do but we’ve got to bring some silverware,” Kenwright said, before reminding Moshiri, Koeman, Walsh and all the other newcomers assembled on stage at the Philharmonic Hall they have joined “a special club”. Everton’s major shareholder asked for the mic. “It’s not enough to say you’re a special club and a great club,” said Moshiri. “We don’t want to be a museum. We want to be competitive and to win.” That prompted loud and sustained applause from re-energised shareholders.
A day later came confirmation that Usmanov’s USM Holdings had struck a naming-rights deal with the club’s Finch Farm training ground. “We do most things together,” Moshiri had told the AGM. And three days after the meeting came Leicester; another pedestrian performance coupled with a demoralising Cup exit.
The Everton manager has used 24 players this season in a so far elusive search for balance, penetration and aggression, with constant changes to the supporting cast around Romelu Lukaku confirming pre-season suspicions he lacked forwards suited to his style. Lukaku has scored an impressive 12 this term, but also dictates a direct approach from those around him, hence the desire for a striker to share the workload.
Schneiderlin, Koeman hopes, will be joined by “one or two” further additions this month and the manager has a lengthy list of inherited players he would happily let go. Of James McCarthy, he said: “There is no chance he will leave in January. After the summer, yes, but not now because the player has shown what I like.” As for the rest, Koeman stated: “Most of the players know the situation. Some players in the squad now don’t have a future for Everton.”
Everton are a team in painful transition with what appears a manager yet to be convinced by the club, and vice-versa.
By Andy Hunter / Guardian
